Posted by Tina
And so the harassment begins for Lumber Liquidators. Money will cross hands some time down the road and the matter will fade into the big gas bag over the beltway just as it did when the Obama feds raided and harassed Gibson Guitars..
Lumber Liquidators is a very successful company. (Has advertised on Rush Limbaugh but also held a fundraiser for Obama in his own home). A couple of days ago the government raided their headquarters under sealed warrants:
Special agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Justice executed search warrants at Lumber Liquidators’ headquarters in Toano, Virginia, and a company office in Richmond, Virginia, said ICE spokesman Brandon Montgomery.
“The warrants are sealed and no further details are available at this time of the investigation,” Montgomery said.
When asked what the agents seized during the raids, Montgomery said, “To my knowledge, ICE did not remove any product from the locations.”
A couple of years ago Gibson Guitars (Republican supporter) was harassed by a similar raid over concerns about illegal wood importation. Gibson maintains that it complied with all regulations and the nations he was buying from claimed he had met their compliance requirements and his paperwork was in order. Gibson eventually paid a $300,000.00 fine to the government.
Was this fine for actual wrong doing or was it an agreement or settlement Gibson accepted to end mounting legal expenses and government harassment? We’ll never know for sure.
The Blaze has some particulars on that story including this statement quoting Gibson’s CEO:
Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz said in an interview with the (Wall Street) Journal last year that a broker may have made a mistake in “labeling the goods” but that the “sale was legal and approved by Indian authorities.”
In other words, as far as Gibson knew at the point of sale it had done nothing wrong. The fine represents big government with it’s jack boot planted firmly on the neck of Gibson guitars.
In the case of Lumber Liquidators the Obama administration is once again making a big bad ass show of being tough on the environment, tossing a bone to green activists and lobbyists. With his popularity hitting all time lows, even among supporters, he’s desperate to re-establish his creds with his base. As the election period approaches I look for him to do more of this abusive, nasty, Saul Alinsky crap.
That’s my opinion and I stand by it.
Re: “Gibson eventually paid a $300,000.00 fine to the government.
Was this fine for actual wrong doing or was it an agreement or settlement Gibson accepted to end mounting legal expenses and government harassment? We’ll never know for sure”.
I know for sure. That is EXACTLY what happened. Who has pockets as deep as the Federal Government? They had the “questionable” finger boards confiscated without any real proof of criminal activity or intent based on a technicality in the law. As a result Gibson was forced to pay a confiscatory fine and a ridiculous fee to a federal conservation fund.
This is the government of the “Democratic” party which sought and successfully punished a company for criticizing the Obama administration.
Love that certainty! I was too exhausted from the wars to be so bold 😉
They also lost a about a million in inventory that was never returned last I heard, and a competitor (Democrat supporter) that buys the same wood from the same suppliers was not similarly harassed!
See story here published in light of the IRS targeting of conservative organizations.
Thanks for your support, Pie!
Here is something to make you feel better Tina. LA State Sen Elbert Guillory’s latest speech.
“LA State Sen Elbert Guillory spoke at CPAC St. Louis this afternoon. (9/28/13) He is the fellow who recently left the Democratic party and joined with gusto the Republican Party. He touched on a lot of topics including how Republicans have been defined by others so that young people think Republicans are racists for example. He talked about the real war on women – that which is in hip hop and rap music.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTlaqR8iuUo&feature=player_detailpage
sounds wonderful Peggy. I’ll be sure to watch on my machine at work…this ones still not in good working order for video viewing (sigh).
And since I’ve played most of the day while being occasionally distracted by football and baseball…I’m off to bed and some quiet time.
We’ll be at it again soon, have a pleasant night all…zzzzzzzzzzz.