John Hinderaker provides a good precis of the Gibson guitar raids. It seems a curious law-enforcement priority even for the Brokest Nation in History. Very few pianos are now made in the United States, but hey, that’s no reason not to do the same to the guitar industry. I would only add that the (century-old but recently expanded) Lacey Act is a characteristic example of the degeneration of federal “law”-making, whereby narrowly drawn legislation metastasizes way beyond its original intent to the point that no reasonable man, no matter how prudent, can know whether he is or isn’t in breach of it.
Such open-ended “laws” are an invitation to tyranny, and it would be expecting an awful lot for a money-no-object bureaucracy not to take advantage of it. For example:
Consider the recent experience of Pascal Vieillard, whose Atlanta-area company, A-440 Pianos, imported several antique Bösendorfers. Mr. Vieillard asked officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species how to fill out the correct paperwork—which simply encouraged them to alert U.S. Customs to give his shipment added scrutiny.
There was never any question that the instruments were old enough to have grandfathered ivory keys. But Mr. Vieillard didn’t have his paperwork straight when two-dozen federal agents came calling.
Two dozen federal agents? To raid a piano importer? Does the piano industry have a particular reputation for violent armed resistance? Or is it that the most footling bureaucrat now feels he has no credibility unless he’s got his own elite commando team? When you’re wondering how America’s national government settled into the habit of spending $4 trillion a year while only raising $2 trillion, it’s easy to get hung up on fine calibrations of entitlement reform circa 2030. But look at it this way: Imagine if, instead of 24 agents, the federal piano police had to make do with a mere dozen to raid a small importer.
Note this, too:
Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr. Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act, and was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation.
They’re antique pianos. They come with ivory keys. They’re grandfathered in. There is no criminal intent and, in the most basic sense, no underlying crime. Yet he’s looking at being tossed in jail “for years”? Any “justice” system with such an utter lack of proportion is not justice at all. It speaks very poorly for us that we tolerate it.
A major rationale for fast, overwhelming raids comes from the fear that drug dealers will flush the evidence if the police knock on the door politely. Maybe the feds feared that someone would flush the pianos.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnfortunately we have to "tolerate" the resident White House infestation and his minions for four years. That's time for a lot of mischief. What do you expect when drooling millions give a black radical leftist personal control of every department and agency of the federal government? Kittens and rainbows?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is a very broad issuue with wide ramifications. The rule of law is being replaced with arbitary rule.
And one of the ramifications is that investments are less safe when the rule of law is not clear. No fiddling with interest rates and 'stimulus spending' will help the economy if investors are being put off by unclear and arbitary treatment.
I know that I have make a point of not investing in any company that does a significant amount of business in the USA. I feel safer in business terms investing my money in China.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, it spurs "investment" all right. In the form of campaign contributions (known on the street as protection money).
The corruption is by design. The economic malaise is collateral damage.
You've all committed "felonies." Sleep well!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen will the people realize that the Republic is over? The Tyranny is here.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI understand that your question is rhetorical, but...
I realized the arrival of our new tyranny on the day the US government - legislative, judicial and executive branches - engaged in a collective effort to strip the secured creditors of General Motors of their private property and redistribute that property to the UAW.
When the government is that blatant in its tyranny, anything that comes after can't possibly be a surprise.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse''Assistant United States Attorney Mary C. Roemer prosecuted the case.
For further information please contact Sally Q. Yates, United States Attorney, or John Horn, First Assistant United States Attorney, through Yvette Comer, at (404) 581-6335. The Internet address for the Home Page for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia is www.justice.gov/usao/gan.''
External Link
Perhaps some Georgians might want to ask their public servants some questions about their behaviour.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile Georgians are in the mood to question their public officials, perhaps they should question some of their public employees as well, particularly those who are employed by Georgia's top five state-funded universities. These employees are blatantly defying a law that prohibits school administrators from admitting illegal immigrants who don't meet admission standards in place of qualified citizens and legal residents who do. In other words, no affirmative action programs for illegal immigrants are allowed at the top five state universities in Georgia.
The state employees who are defying the anti-affirmative action law have tenure and, therefore, can't be fired for expressing their First Amendment right to oppose this law. And they have chosen to express their opposition by using resources paid for by taxpayers to offer "freedom" classes to illegal immigrants whose admission to their universities is prohibited by law. Keep in mind this law applies only to the top five universities in the state. All other state universities are entitled to discriminate against citizens and legal residents in favor of illegal immigrants.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePresident Obama's economic recovery and job creation plan makes it more difficult and costly for revenue-producing, job-creating companies to do business in America (Gibson Guitar and Boeing, for example) while providing $20 million to a green energy company that used all those hard-earned tax dollars to create 14 jobs at a cost of more than $1.4 million each.
With a plan like this, our country's economic recovery is sure to be slow and painful - if it happens at all. Violations of the Lacey Act had nothing to do with the raid (and government harassment) of Gibson Guitar. That company is an American tradition, therefore, it must be eliminated along with other American traditions that impede Obama's transformation of America.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI assume then that Gibson Guitar does not submit to a union shakedown?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not sure what point you're trying to make. What does a private sector union shakedown of Gibson Guitar have to do with a raid by the federal government that could lead to criminal indictments? The only connection I see between the two is the abuse of federal laws for political purposes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm guessing he's making note of the tendency of this govt to do whatever it takes to make sure companies go union.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's a perfect trifecta: the law has become so vague that it can mean anything, the Feds go completely overboard in its enforcement, and the penalty is completely unmoored from the actual act.
(There's the old principle of lex talionis, proportional punishment. The post-modern secularists will balk at this, but the Old Testament laws for ancient Israel at least fit this minimum standard of justice, with the notion of "eye for an eye.")
We know that that the same government turns a blind eye to genuine outrages which it finds convenient to its causes, including voter fraud and intimidation and illegal immigration on a massive scale.
They're not doing their basic jobs, and what they are doing is tearing down this country in its social cohesion and its economic productivity.
Contrary to the ninnies who've rebuked politicians like Perry for their hard-nosed rhetoric, it would actually be difficult to overstate the destructive lunacy of the state.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, maybe he should have used the pianos to stash drugs in them for the Mexican cartels. By doing this he would have garnered the sympathies of many civil libertarian groups because drug use is a private matter and ought not be punished and from the nativist Latino groups because hey! he was obviously providing work to illegal immigrants and helping grow the Mexican economy. Just trying to make an honest living selling pianos with ivory is so 19th century.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAhem, I don't know if this is the way to do it, but I am in general agreement with efforts to stop elephant poaching.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou don't know if this is the way to do it?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA crushing law enforcement effort is one way to shut down the domestic market for ivory. I don't know if it is the best way, but it is obviously the way that the people in charge of such things have chosen. Generally speaking, I have no problem with crushing law enforcement efforts when enacted by proper authority.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusejust as I thought, a fascist. If you think this is proper American justice at work I hope you have no influence on anyone.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Law and order" is a natural strength of conservatives and frittering it away is the height of political stupidity. Anyone who calls law enforcement "fascist" is no ally of mine.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAre you honestly trying to claim that law enforcement can never be fascist?
Were the law enforcement officers who burned a compound to the ground, killing hundreds behaving in a fascist manner?
Was the law enforcement officer who was found guilty of killing a women for the crime of holding a baby, behaving in a fascist manner?
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