Coffeecare: What if we had to buy coffee like we now have to buy health insurance?

Coffeecare? What if we had to buy coffee like we now have to buy health insurance? Obamacare.

Gibson Guitar Company persecuted by U.S. Federal Government?

When the U.S. Government first invaded the Gibson Guitar Company in August 2011, the news spread through Facebook like wildfire as many expressed outrage at yet another overreach by our own government.

Charlie Daniels, that bigger-than-life country superstar who love the U.S. in a way that he willingly gives and expresses with our troops, had some words about the raid on Gibson. On his blog he wrote:

Persecution

When I went to Iraq the first time I saw a great need for recreational musical instruments as a lot of the troops played, to one degree or another, but just didn't have instruments to help while away the lonely off duty hours.

When I got back stateside I started something we called Operation Heartstrings in an effort to provide instruments, and strings to our men and women serving so far away from home.

The first call I made was to Henry Juszkiewicz, the owner of the Gibson Guitar Company who, without hesitation, donated one hundred Gibson guitars and a gross or so of strings to the project.

Henry is good American and businessman who makes a quality product and exports it to the world, providing a lot of American jobs in the process.

On August 24, agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Homeland Security executed a raid on the corporate headquarters and two of the factories of the Gibson Guitar Company in Nashville, TN.

They confiscated 24 pallets of Indian rosewood, some finished guitars and some of the company's computer files, claiming that Gibson had illegally imported the wood used to make fretboards and bridges on their guitars.

A little known - and recently amended - piece of legislation called the Lacey Act contends that American companies have to operate according to the laws of the country exporting the wood.

The feds contend that if the fretboards had been finished in India and imported that way there would be no problem, but that when imported in the raw form and finished by American workers it is illegal.

And here's the sickening thing, the complaint did not originate with the Indian government. They are perfectly happy to export the unfinished fretboards.

The deputy director general of foreign trade for India even stated in a letter in July of this year that rosewood ebony from India was freely exportable but the feds seem to want to use their own interpretation of the law to harass Gibson.

And I do mean harass.

Why not the other guitar companies who import and use the same wood, why single out Gibson?

Could it be that Henry Juszkiewicz has been known to support Republican candidates while at least one other major guitar manufacturer supports Democrats?
...
No matter what he says, Obama has a careless disregard for American jobs, especially if they're not unionized.

If the Homeland Security Department needs something to do they could provide some much needed help on the Arizona border.

This is disgusting.

This, the second raid on Gibson, has raised questions to many Americans at a time when the Obama administration says it cares about jobs for Americans....

Is the Environmental Protection Agency out of control?

Jim Hoeft writes over at Bearing Drift:

Well, score a victory for global warming alarmists and a loss for the citizens of Virginia.

The EPA just managed to cause a coal-fired electrical plant to shudder its doors in the 9th Congressional District because of its un-checked, un-restrained, independent and arbitrary power.

That's jobs lost. While it's bad to lose jobs anywhere, these are in an area of the Commonwealth where they are especially needed.

Overreaching government regulations? You decide.

The wisdom of Reagan ...

... and the danger of the current Democratic Party.

"The problem with our liberal friends isn't that they're ignorant. It's that they know so much that isn't so." --President Ronald Reagan

Mark Hemmingway at The Washington Examiner also weighs in....

Thousands and thousands protest Obama oil moratorium

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) addressed a crowd of over 11,000 people who gathered in Lafayette today to protest President Barack Obama's moratorium on deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico:

Thousands attended a rally in Lafayette Wednesday aimed at convincing the Obama administration to lift the federal offshore drilling moratorium, which officials said could further endanger the state through the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

The “Rally for Economic Survival” was held at the Cajundome and drew about 11,000 people, some dressed in their oil industry uniforms, others in shirts bearing messages of “Drill Baby Drill” and “No Moratorium.”

Pat Austin at And so it goes in Shreveport blog had details of "The Rally for Economic Survival" that featured 12 speakers including Louisiana's Lt. Governor Scott Angelle:

•In one act, the Obama administration has signed the pink slips of tens of thousands of Louisiana and Gulf Coast citizens.

•The financial consequences from the moratorium will eventually create an economic ripple effect that will negatively impact every citizen of the United States.

•Consumers will bare the brunt of the federal drilling moratorium paying more everywhere from the pump to the grocery store.

Gov. Jindal summed it up when he said, "We're in the middle of a war to defend our way of life."