RANDY TRAVIS CANNOT CONTROL HIS LIFE

GIBSON
GUITAR & RANDY TRAVIS NEED HELP
GIBSON
GUITAR TURNS OUT TO BE UNTRUTHFUL
AND
RANDY
TRAVIS CANNOT CONTROL HIS LIFE
After reading both of the following articles, I cannot hold my
comments inside any longer.  First of all, the picture below of Randy
Travis is the picture of a man who is lost and has no idea where he is going or
where he wants to go, but the best place for him would be in jail, not to sleep
it off, but to get control of his life.  If he is needing publicity, this
type is what we call negative publicity and it never helps, only hurts. 
You would think a man that has had so much success in life would at least know
enough to keep his clothes on. 
I wonder if he has read any news on a certain young lady whose
continued negative lifestyle devastated her career forever.  Travis is a
walking example of somebody who has become a nobody, by his own
lifestyle.  He would do well to change his way of living to retain
whatever career he has left. This is not the days of 1982 or On The
Other Hand.
  This is 2012, and if he continues on the path he is
walking on, all of his past will be forgotten quicker than he can blink his
eyes.  Seems he thinks he is beyond the law with his abusive threats,
something that would jail others with no bond until a judge had the opportunity
to make a decision on their crime.
His status in the country music industry is grinding Travis into
the ground.  Maybe the town of Sherman gave him a break because of who he
thinks he is, but he needs some guidance, which he has never had when he was
single.  Naked, drunk, abusive to the law officers, crashing his “1998”
Pontiac Trans Am, is a sign of rebellion, thinking you are above the law. 
I would not be writing this, but back in February he was in trouble once again,
and he is still going through issues with his ex-wife Elizabeth Travis. 
Somebody needs to tell Travis that he is on the downside of his life and by the
looks of it, it is only going to get worse for him, unless he changes his
ways.  Also trouble in Canada, and an anger tirade in the green room of
the David Letterman Show.  There is a higher judge he needs to ask for
help.
The mug shot makes him looks angry with the world, and his mouth
continues to get in trouble, but driving a car naked.  I am wondering if
the weather was just too hot out there in Texas and he needed to cool
down.  Where did he come from and where was he going, or does he know the
answer to either of these questions.  There are more details coming out
today regarding this new incident in the life of Randy Travis, which would
serve no purpose for me to add them to my comments.  Travis has made his
own bed, and now he will have to sleep in it.
Keep going the way you are Mr. Travis and you will end up 6 foot
under and no one will give a damn.  At least when Johnny PayCheck stopped
to smell the roses, he found that there was a sweet smell of the good life, and
he changed his ways.  It is time to grow up Randy, get some professional
help, and try smelling the flowers, and get your life in order.
  Look and
sounds like Travis wants to let his career go down the drain, and if he
continues the time is getting shorter.  People have a tendency to forgive
and forget a couple of times, but….
I am getting sick and tired of certain artists who think they can do
whatever they wish, when they wish, and if it is wrong, they believe there will
be no recourse, and by the look of Travis’s picture, it shows no
remorse.  Money cannot and will not make his problems go away.

Marty Martel©

My comments on the Gibson
Guitar Scandal are as follows.  First of all, please read both of the
articles below regarding
Randy Travis and Gibson Guitar. 
I remember when the first
problem began back in 2009 when Gibson Guitar factories were raided by agents
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service .  At that time I chastised our
government for sticking their noses into our music industry business, believing
everything that
Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz was telling
the media, was the truth.  I backed Gibson Guitar to the max.  Now I
find out that Mr. Juszkiewicz was not telling the truth, and all they get for
their lies and scandal is a slap on the wrist, and a $350,000 penalty.
 
Are you kidding me??
And everyone that I knew especially the musicians were up in
arms because our government was accusing our wonderful Gibson Guitar Company
of importing ebony wood illegally from Madagascar in violation of a federal law
protecting endangered species.
  Yes I believed every word Gibson was
saying, continually denying all charges and getting all of us in the music
industry and around the world, up in arms with our government.  Now we
come to find out that Gibson was not telling the truth, and finally the
government had them by the seat of their pants and the only thing they could do
was finally come forward by admitting that what they had been accused of, was
true, and now all they get is a slap on the wrist and a fine for being a liar.
The one other thing that bothers me and I do not understand,
are those musicians who bought these instruments made with ebony illegally
imported from Madagascar, did they not know that the guitars were being made
illegally by Gibson Guitar, and they still purchased the instruments.  No
one will ever be able to prove it, but there are certain guitarists who are
owners of these precious guitars, and I am wondering what the price of this
guitar with illegal wood, costs these artists.
I along with many others, stood behind Gibson Guitar
company throughout this ordeal-until now.  Gibson has been in existence
for many, many years, and now we come to find out that they were hiding the
truth, and the cookie jar that they had their hands in, is still filled with
cookies for them.  All I can say is, “Mr Juszkiewicz, you got away a
crime that makes Nashville and puts the music industry in a bad
light.”  I wonder how Gibson Guitar Company lost so little, but
caused so much harm with the loss of integrity for their company. 
Marty Martel© 
TWO ARTICLES FOLLOW
Randy Travis was
charged with driving while intoxicated and threatening law officers after the
country singer crashed his car and was found naked and combative at the scene, officials
said.
A mug shot released by the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office shows a
battered-looking Travis in a gray T-shirt, with a black eye and dried blood on
his face. He later walked out of the county jail wearing scrubs, a University
of Texas ball cap and no shoes.
It was the second Texas arrest this year for Travis, who was cited in
February for public intoxication.
The sheriff’s office in Grayson County, located in far North Texas
along the border with Oklahoma, received a 911 call at 11:18 p.m. Tuesday about
a man seen lying in a road west of Tioga, where the entertainer lives.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responding to the scene said
a Pontiac Trans Am registered to Travis, 53, had been driven off the road and
struck several barricades in a construction road.
Travis was not wearing clothes at the time of his arrest and made
threats against the Texas troopers, said Tom Vinger, a DPS spokesman. He said
the singer refused sobriety tests, so a blood specimen was taken.
Travis was released on $21,500 bond Wednesday morning from the jail in
Sherman, about 60 miles north of Dallas. Blood test results are pending.
Grayson County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rickey Wheeler said Travis faces charges
of retaliation or obstruction in addition to driving under the influence.
“Travis had a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath and
several signs of intoxication,” according to a statement from the
sheriff’s office. “While Travis was being transported, Travis made threats
to shoot and kill the troopers working the case.”
A Travis representative said there would be no immediate comment on the
arrest.
A message left Wednesday afternoon with the Grayson County district
attorney’s office was not immediately returned.
In February, Travis was charged with public intoxication after being
spotted in a vehicle parked in front of a church in Sanger, about 20 miles from
Tioga.
He also has been involved in messy court proceedings with his ex-wife.
Travis was divorced from Elizabeth Travis in 2010 after 19 years of marriage.
Earlier this year, Elizabeth Travis, who had been his manager for more
than three decades, filed a lawsuit claiming that Randy Travis made it
impossible for her to do her job and terminated her management contract without
proper notice. She said her ex-husband sent several men, including an armed
guard, to clean out her offices.
Randy Travis countersued in May, accusing his ex-wife of divulging
confidential information about him in order to damage his reputation and
career. The court documents don’t say what information Elizabeth Travis is
alleged to have betrayed.
Diana Heidgerd, Associated Press
*****************************************************************************************************
Gibson to pay $350,000
in penalties over illegal wood
Nashville
guitar maker was accused of importing banned ebony, rosewood
Written by The Tennessean
    
SAMUEL M. SIMPKINS/THE TENNESSEAN)
Nashville-based Gibson Guitar Corp. will pay a
$300,000 fine and make a $50,000 community-service payment for conservation in
response to federal allegations that the company used illegally obtained ebony
wood in the manufacture of its products.
The
U.S. Justice Department issued the following news release about the settlement
this morning:
WASHINGTON
– Gibson Guitar Corp. entered into a criminal enforcement agreement with
the United States today resolving a criminal investigation into allegations
that the company violated the Lacey Act by illegally purchasing and importing
ebony wood from Madagascar and rosewood and ebony from India.
The
agreement was announced today by Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno
of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division,
Jerry Martin, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee and Dan Ashe,
Director of the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service.
The
criminal enforcement agreement defers prosecution for criminal violations of
the Lacey Act and requires Gibson to pay a penalty amount of $300,000. The
agreement further provides for a community service payment of $50,000 to the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to be used to promote the conservation,
identification and propagation of protected tree species used in the musical
instrument industry and the forests where those species are found. Gibson will
also implement a compliance program designed to strengthen its compliance
controls and procedures. In related civil forfeiture actions, Gibson will
withdraw its claims to the wood seized in the course of the criminal
investigation, including Madagascar ebony from shipments with a total invoice
value of $261,844.
In
light of Gibson’s acknowledgement of its conduct, its duties under the
Lacey Act and its promised cooperation and remedial actions, the government
will decline charging Gibson criminally in connection with Gibson’s
order, purchase or importation of ebony from Madagascar and ebony and rosewood
from India, provided that Gibson fully carries out its obligations under the
agreement, and commits no future violations of law, including Lacey Act
violations.
“As
a result of this investigation and criminal enforcement agreement, Gibson has
acknowledged that it failed to act on information that the Madagascar ebony it
was purchasing may have violated laws intended to limit overharvesting and
conserve valuable wood species from Madagascar, a country which has been
severely impacted by deforestation,” said Assistant Attorney General
Moreno. “Gibson has ceased acquisitions of wood species from Madagascar
and recognizes its duty under the U.S. Lacey Act to guard against the
acquisition of wood of illegal origin by verifying the circumstances of its
harvest and export, which is good for American business and American consumers.”
“The
Department of Justice is committed to enforcing the laws enacted by
Congress,” said U.S. Attorney Martin. “Failure to do so harms those
who play by the rules and follow the law. This criminal enforcement agreement
goes a long way in demonstrating the government’s commitment to
protecting the world’s natural resources. The agreement is fair and just
in that it assesses serious penalties for Gibson’s behavior while
allowing Gibson to continue to focus on the business of making guitars.”
“The
Lacey Act’s illegal logging provisions were enacted with bipartisan
support in Congress to protect vanishing foreign species and forest ecosystems,
while ensuring a level playing field for America’s forest products
industry and the people and communities who depend on it,” said U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service Director Ashe. “We’re pleased that Gibson
Guitar Corp. has recognized its duties under the Lacey Act to guard against the
acquisition of wood of illegal origin from threatened forests and has taken
responsibility for actions that may have contributed to the unlawful export and
exploitation of wood from some of the world’s most threatened forests.”
Since
May 2008, it has been illegal under the Lacey Act to import into the United
States plants and plant products (including wood) that have been harvested and
exported in violation of the laws of another country. Congress extended the
protections of the Lacey Act, the nation’s oldest resource protection
law, to these products in an effort to address the environmental and economic
impact of illegal logging around the world.
The
criminal enforcement agreement includes a detailed statement of facts
describing the conduct for which Gibson accepts and acknowledges
responsibility. The facts establish the following:
Madagascar
Ebony is a slow-growing tree species and supplies are considered threatened in
its native environment due to over-exploitation. Both legal and illegal logging
of Madagascar Ebony and other tree species have significantly reduced
Madagascar’s forest cover. Madagascar’s forests are home to many
rare endemic species of plants and animals. The harvest of ebony in and export
of unfinished ebony from Madagascar has been banned since 2006.
Gibson
purchased “fingerboard blanks,” consisting of sawn boards of
Madagascar ebony, for use in manufacturing guitars. The Madagascar ebony
fingerboard blanks were ordered from a supplier who obtained them from an
exporter in Madagascar. Gibson’s supplier continued to receive Madagascar
ebony fingerboard blanks from its Madagascar exporter after the 2006 ban. The
Madagascar exporter did not have authority to export ebony fingerboard blanks
after the law issued in Madagascar in 2006.
In
2008, an employee of Gibson participated in a trip to Madagascar, sponsored by
a non-profit organization. Participants on the trip, including the Gibson
employee, were told that a law passed in 2006 in Madagascar banned the harvest
of ebony and the export of any ebony products that were not in finished form.
They were further told by trip organizers that instrument parts, such as
fingerboard blanks, would be considered unfinished and therefore illegal to
export under the 2006 law. Participants also visited the facility of the
exporter in Madagascar, from which Gibson’s supplier sourced its Madagascar
ebony, and were informed that the wood at the facility was under seizure at
that time and could not be moved.
After
the Gibson employee returned from Madagascar with this information, he conveyed
the information to superiors and others at Gibson. The information received by
the Gibson employee during the June 2008 trip, and sent to company management
by the employee and others following the June 2008 trip, was not further
investigated or acted upon prior to Gibson continuing to place orders with its
supplier. Gibson received four shipments of Madagascar ebony fingerboard blanks
from its supplier between October 2008 and September 2009.

This
case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with assistance
from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case was handled by the
Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

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