Guitar Antihero: How Gibson Guitars made illegal logging a conservative cause célèbre

[n2doc]

BY GLENN HUROWITZ

27 SEP 2011 3:50 PM

If you've tuned into any of the major jobs speeches recently or the conservative media's political coverage surrounding them, you've heard about newly minted Tea Party hero, Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. He was sitting in House Speaker John Boehner's box during President Obama's jobs speech. Boehner cited him in his own jobs speech a few days later. According to a count by the nonprofit Media Matters, Fox News has featured his company 24 times in the last couple of weeks.

Juszkiewicz's elevation to conservative celebrity status may seem a little odd: His company is the subject of a civil case brought by the federal government for allegedly importing illegally logged wood. Federal agents recently raided several Gibson Guitar facilities, apparently on suspicion that the illegal imports continue even while the company faces federal action in the original case.

At a time when the GOP has been working overtime to tar the Obama administration for the FBI raid of failed solar panel maker and government loan recipient Solyndra, it raises the obvious question: Why would party leaders associate themselves with a company suspected of committing crimes that not only contribute to horrific environmental destruction and corruption in developing countries -- but also put legitimate American timber growers, manufacturers, and workers out of business?

The answers shed light on a disturbing trend among too many in the GOP to unquestioningly adopt Tea Party causes. But this is also a story of how foreign companies are finding a new vehicle to advance their lobbying interests in the United States. Just as Asian timber interests have launched a marketing and lobbying campaign to gain access to American markets for questionably logged wood and paper, Tea Party groups are diverting members' attention to push these same corporate interests, rather than the broad conservative agenda they signed up for.

more
http://www.grist.org/politics/2011-09-27-guitar-antihero

[spanone]

1. k&r..

marsha blackburn (r-tn) treated him as if he were some kind of hero....

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. He's rich.

[tridim]

3. Whatever, I'm a Fender man anyway.

Gibsons are overpriced.

[Celebration]

4. And just why

Is wood from India made into fret boards in India and exported to the USA fine, but the same wood exported to the USA to be made into fret boards here illegal?

I mean, seriously, it is ridiculous. This is not an environmental issue. It all has to do with the exporting of our jobs to India.

The legality of wood has only to do with WHERE it is turned into frets. India, okay, USA, not. I would listen to the evidence but if this is the case I have no sympathy for that position.

[Major Hogwash]

5. What kind of wood were they importing anyway?

I know they have restrictions on logging in Africa in certain countries there for their different kinds of wood, but I don't know what kind of exotic woods they were importing.

[lurky]

7. Don't know offhand, but

most of their guitars are made of mahogany with rosewood or ebony fingerboards. All three of these woods could come from endangered varieties.

I have a Gibson bass that I love, but it was made back in the '70s when they still had their plant in Kalamazoo, so I don't feel so bad.

[Cowpunk]

6. Here's another example

Americans For Prosperity(Koch brother front group) has recently been railing against natural gas subsidies. Who do you think benefits from that?