Remember these previous Vital Signs posts -- Obama Administration Raids American Company on American Soil -- For Breaking Foreign Law! (August 26) and The Plot Thickens: Gibson Guitars vs The Nanny State (August 29)?
Well, the story isn't going away. Indeed, thanks to the bold, principled efforts of Gibson Guitar's chief exec, Henry Juszkiewicz, and a bit of help from Republicans like Marsha Blackburn and John Boehner, the fight against the unconstitutional, anti-business actions of the Obama administration is heating up nicely.
The chief executive of Gibson Guitar Corp., which has been the target of two federal raids in the past two years over the exotic wood it uses to make the instruments, said Thursday he wants Obama to show some concern for the nation’s job creators.
“It’s not easy to compete on a global basis,” Gibson's Henry Juszkiewicz told Fox News. “We’re competing with Chinese, European companies. We’d like to feel like we’re respected and help create jobs.”
Juszkiewicz was House Speaker John Boehner’s guest at Obama’s speech before a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, in which he unveiled a $447 billion plan to jumpstart the weak economy. Boehner's invitation to Juszkiewicz was a shot across the bow to the president, whose agenda of regulations and new taxes is seen by critics as anti-business.
Federal agents first raided the Nashville company in 2009 over suspect wood shipments from Madagascar. Gibson took that case to court but has denounced the administration with a vengeance after agents returned late last month to raid several Gibson factories -- this time out of concern that Indian export laws had been violated...
On Thursday, he said his company’s track record of hiring Americans – 580 in the last two years – is now in jeopardy at a time when the economy can least afford it.
Here's a few other relevant stories: 1, 2, 3, and 4. And right here is where you can go to "Like" the Facebook page of Support Gibson Guitars.