It's worse than that Keith, at least according to the probable cause affidavit. The investigator showed the judge evidence of Gibson putting false declarations on US Customs import documents. Specifically, declaring the shipment was "finished fingerboards" when it was in fact sawn logs. Then, the final destination was not listed as Gibson but somewhere else who then forwarded the wood to Gibson. All that is a felony. You can't lie on official US Customs importation papers. More, according to the investigator the employees who, if you believe certain blogs are being "harassed" by over zealous federal marshals, were the ones who filled out those documents. Just because the boss tells you to do something, if it involves legal documents like Customs forms it's up to the employee to understand what they're signing and what the ramifications of it are. If they didn't know it was illegal to falsify Customs forms then those employee's are real idiots.

As a musician and a right wing conservative of course I don't want to see Gibson go down, of course I think these kinds of arcane enviro tree hugging laws are pure crap but that's beside the point here. If none of us knew it was Gibson, it's just some company who falsified Customs documents, law & order conservatives would shrug and say, good for the feds, bust 'em.

Most of us on the right side of the asle feel that the feds should be enforcing immigration law, it's certainly a crime to cross the border illegally. Well, we can't be hypocritical here. It's the same ICE in both cases. On one hand we're yelling they must enforce the law and on the other they should look the other way because it's our beloved Gibson and we think the whole wood import thing is bogus?

Whole groups of laws, including parts of the EPA, Endangered species, OSHA, all those kinds of laws are killing us as a country. From the EPA treating carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas to the Endagered Species Act shutting down the water supply to farms in half of the central valley in northern California because of some stupid one inch fish. Now the feds are proclaming a 54 MPG average for new cars starting in a few years? That tiny pos Smart car only gets 50. What are we going to wind up driving, pedal cars with a battery? It's insane.

Still, when it's your ass on the line you can't pick and choose your laws. It is what it is and Gibson knew that all along from what I can see.

Bob

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