Gibson Guitar CEO Becomes Tea Party Cause

by Max Johnson

Gibson Guitar was raided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for using illegally exported rosewood from India. The government raided the facility shutting it down.  The CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, has become a star in the fantasy world of the Tea Party for railing against laws that destroy jobs.  He was even invited to attend the Obama Jobs Speech as a sign of support by the Corporate party.  He is claiming that he received no warning of any infraction before the raid, and it cost his company $1 million then $2 million or even $3 million, as well as prevented him from hiring 14 additional American workers.  In a time of terror over the unstable jobs market, using the jobs defense is the ultimate trump card.

This is all really silly, and can be easily smacked down.  All the Justice Department has to say is, "If you folks out there in the frontier justice world of the tea party allow Gibson Guitar to make some guitars out of "Lady Liberty" the 2,000 year old Cypress Tree down in Florida and the Auburn Oak which was recently poisoned on the campus of the University of Auburn, we will drop the case against Gibson."   This would shut up these loons who so hate government that they will lionize a corporation engaged alleged illegal activity.  Cut down Lady Liberty and we see how they scream for government regulations.

Ohio is Open for Business?

Ohio Governor Declares His Support of Business

by Max
After meeting with automakers and asking for more auto business for Ohio, new Ohio Governor, John Kasich declared that "Ohio's open for business." What does this mean exactly? Does this mean that we need to reduce corporate taxes in order to compete with Alabama? It is likely that this will mean that we need to reduce the individual income tax in order to attract CEOs with their obscene salaries. But the big issue, in which Kasich campaigned on, was to reduce government regulations that stifle business. Here are some examples of ways that Kasich could reduce the development and expansion of businesses in Ohio.

• Strip away regulations of mines so that we could experience the tragedy that took place at Massey Energy mines here in Ohio and the loss of 29 miners deep inside the earth.
  
• Eliminate funds for government expertise to even be able to understand complicated drill mechanisms such as those in the Deep Water Horizon. Ohio too could join the other communities that have experienced a man made disaster by reducing government regulations.
• We could allow insurance companies to do whatever they want and charge whatever they want.
  
• Ohio could have the fun of cleaning up a coal ash dump like at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee without proper government oversight. We may be able to add jobs cleaning up 1.1 billion gallons of sludge like they did in Roane County after government did protect the citizens against improper fly ash dumping.
  
• We can get rid of the regulations of payday lenders, and allow companies to exploit low income residents in need of small loans.
  
• We can eliminate regulations on the banking industry and financial services like Kasich's old firm the bankrupt Lehman Brothers. We could continue to allow Ohioans to be exploited by the sharks with lawyers who rob them of their houses.
  
• Maybe we can go through another Savings and Loan fiasco with government not watching out for fair lending practices.
  
• We could allow corporations unlimited access to influence our elections without transparency and without limits.
  
• We could turn our attention away from the regulation of vehicles so that they are unsafe or we could turn our roads or bridges over to private corporations to maximize profits while minimizing maintenance.
  
• We could reduce regulations on public utilities in the hopes of reducing red tape and improving competition or causing another Love Canal or Davis Besse reactor head hole.
• We could turn our public education over to corporations so that we could drop out of the top 10 states with the best education system in America.
  

I am not comforted that Ohio is open for business. I want someone watching corporations to avoid all the abuse we have seen just over the last decade by corporations. Kasich's friends on Wall Street almost took down our economy with their disregard for rules and their lust for money. I have no confidence that he will be our watchdog in Columbus. How many government regulations will he cut to bring in businesses? How many people will die or have their housing taken for the greater good of bringing jobs to Ohio? How many taxpayers will be harmed because Ohio is open for business?