March 26, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

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Washington DC - Indeed it is true, President Obama will be online this morning answering question during an online town hall style meeting. This continues President Obama’s path of using new technology to engage Americans that other Presidents have forgot - the tech nerd. Good job Mr President!

Be a part of the online town hall meeting here - http://www.whitehouse.gov/openforquestions/

The event starts at 1130am eastern time - that is 830am in LA for the people reading who don’t want to do the math.

***UPDATE***
The questions were brought up by the public and then voted on by the public. The president totally dodged one of the most popular questions - should we legalize marijuana and tax it to help balance the budget and redirect police resources to more awful crimes? He laughed it off and plainly said no. With the millions of Americans smoking pot, and millions of dollars spent every day on pot, and it not being taxed, what do you think? Sounds like big money in the bank for a cash strapped State of California.

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March 18, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Denver, Colorado - The rumors have been swirling across the Internet for the last week or so, and I have to confirm the truth, Denver’s hardest working band, ANIMO has called it quits and broken up. In a statement on the bands MySpace page it was simply stated - ‘ANIMO is no mo’.

In speaking to front man Schuyler Ankele during a phone interview over the weekend, he seemed sad about the end, but hopeful for the future of his music. He told me that the band had just ran its course and with different priorities in life, the band members needed to move on. When asked about what he plans to do the music he was writing recently with guitarist and co-songwriter Brian Johannsen for the new ANIMO album, he said that he wanst sure, but that he has plans to keep writing songs with Johannsen.

“Brian and I have written many songs and I think we will continue to do that. If Jimmy is interested, we just might have him play drums. I definitely have plans for music in my future, this is not the end of my career,” explained Schuyler in a confidant tone. “There was just so much going on with life and after a band meeting it was decided that we would split ways.”

I have had the pleasure of knowing these guys for years now. We met in Las Cruces, New Mexico in September of 2003 while we were both on separate tours. By pure luck and coincidence, DORK (ANIMO’s former name) and my band, Keenwild were booked at the same venues two nights in a row. We ended up becoming fast friends, we did a radio interview in tandem and we got them on a couple of shows thru our then manager who was also a promoter in So Cal. They crashed on our floor when they came to town. It was a great time in both of our lives, full of new adventures and fun - yet also a lot of hard work and sleeping in the van with long drives and little food. It was this common bond of hard work and dedication that bonded us.


After a while, the first former singer, Dylan Martinez left the band and so left the heavy pop-punk-rap Mest influence and in came an even more poppy early blink-182esque style with Bryan Knoebel taking over the lead vocals after being the lead guitarist and back up vocalist. The band only got better after Bryan took the helm of the band. Soon enough Brian Johannsen joined the band after producing songs and playing some keyboard. I remember a show I booked for them at the Roxy, they just blew the doors off the place with Brian in the band. We (Full Value) went to countless DORK shows, booked them at events and tried our best to make sure everyone under the sun knew about our buddies from Denver.

I think it was early 2007 when Bryan Knoebel left the band. I got the sense from him a few months before it was announced that he was done and wanted to move on with his life. The spark had just left him. This happens more than I can tell you in this article. Many times I have seen great bands with big futures give it up after a founding member leaves the band, and at the time, DORK was a great, highly polished band with a big future. As it played out, Bryan didn’t want to be on the see-saw ride that was DORK, and he jumped ship. I recently caught up with Bryan on a social networking site and he is doing well, looks like a happy man who made the choice that was best for him.

The boys of DORK didn’t have any intention of stopping when Bryan left. They huddled and decided to make Schuyler the singer and to come up with a new name. After many long days of contemplation, they settled on the name ANIMO. I spent many days speaking with bassist Donovan Welsh about the name change and the new direction of the band. I told him I thought they had what it took and were a great band with of without Bryan. Indeed they were!

In the summer of 2007, the band took off on yet another Warped Tour - however it was kind of like starting over with a new name. They didn’t have the same recognition with the name change, but worked twice as hard to make up the difference. That is what made this band what they were, hard work and true dedication to the craft of touring and promotion. I enjoyed working with them during the period of the name change, I could sense that they were excited again, hungry to ‘make it’. When they rocked the Temecula Music Fest in 2007, they brought a new Rise Against style energy to the stage, to put it in plain words, they shredded the stage and this continued all summer on Warped.

After the Christmas break, I spoke to Donovan about playing the 2008 Temecula Music Fest, an event they had played for a few years faithfully. Donovan had told me that they were not going to be able to make it out, due to the high as hell gas prices and the fact they scored a great gig in Denver on the same weekend. Unfortunately for them the gig didn’t turn out as planned, performers canceled and it just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Either way, they were on the Warped Tour again and things looked bright.

ANIMO made it out to California a few days before Warped Tour to film a video for the single off the new album ‘Blood in the Water’ at The Merc in Temecula. It was a great experience and many of the bands So Cal fans came out on a Monday night to see them play and to hang out at TGIFridays after the show like every other time they came to town. At dinner that night Jimmy spoke like a man who was a man who was ready to maybe settle down a bit. He had changed personal things in his life that made him a happier man, it was great to see, but foreboding at the same time. ‘New Guy’ Brian had began to gel with the band and its longtime friends more and that was great, he is a good guy. I did however sense a certain disconnect from Donovan, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was there. As always, Schuyler and I drank a beer and had a damn good time, we are certainly good at that. All was well, or so I thought.

I arrived at Warped Tour in the summer of 2008 to see the band and to hang out with them, the only catch was that I didnt even see them all together except when they were on the stage. Donovan seemed to be in his own world, Schuyler was hella busy working the tour, Jimmy was no where to be seen and ‘New Guy’ was kinda hanging out alone. The vibe in the merch tent at Warped could be summed up by Joe (who was the merch guy) and his unfortunate condition - a broken arm. An arm broken by a 14 year old girl in an arm wrestling competition they were hosting in the tent. I sensed the same disconnect from Donovan that I had sensed from Bryan 2 years earlier. I was worried, very worried -these were my friends, and one of my favorite bands. The new album ripped and I wanted the best for them.

In November we headed out on our yearly trek to Kansas to see my wife’s family for Thanksgiving. We always go thru Denver, and we got a hotel for the night near where the band grew up in Arvada. I had attempted to call Donovan many times but didn’t get a reply, I chalked it up to him being busy around the holidays. I did get a hold of Schuyler and we hung out for a while and chatted about the band and the future, I guess it was all good, but still it seemed odd. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but something was off. Again, I wanted the best for my buddies and just looked forward to them playing the 2009 Temecula Music Fest so I put any ill thoughts aside and looked to the future.

Over the last few weeks I had tried to get a hold of both Donovan and Schuyler, with no success. I needed to know if they were good to go for the festival, after all they were a 5 time Warped Tour act and had grown a strong following here in So Cal, I wanted them to play. I wanted to see my friends, I wanted to rock out with my co*k out (old DORK reference), I wanted to scream ‘fu*k yeah’ at the top of my lungs when they played that song (fu*k yeah). I wanted to go to TGIFridays and drink a beer and be silly after the show, it was a tradition after all. I finally got Schuyler on the phone and asked him what was up. He told me “man, its a funny story”. After he told me, I didn’t think it was so funny. I was sad.

All in all, I have fond memories of the many times we all spent together and I only wish they could continue because no matter what they were called, DORK or ANIMO they brought a great show to the stage, genuine love for the fans and dedication that I could respect as a performer and a promoter. I wish nothing but the best to ANIMO; Schuyler, Donovan, Jimmy and Brian - my good buddies, one of my favorite bands and the source for many of the best memories of the past 6 years of my life in the music biz.

RIP ANIMO - 2001-2009.

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February 25, 2009 by Lance Bugle.

California - I saw this on CNN yesterday and it made me think - what the hell is wrong with our government when they would rather keep pot illegal and have the Mexican drug cartels making money when Americans could be growing and selling the pot, having jobs, making money and generating tax dollars to help fix our jacked up budget?

Check out the video and chime in with comments and tell us what you think!!

I say - LETS GROW!!

Here is more info on Ganja from a stumbleupon.com site:

The Marijuana Trick
Doug Yurchey – 2005

And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land. – Ezekiel 34/29

Where did the word ‘marijuana’ come from? In the mid 1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant…as you will read. The facts cited here, with references, are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Britannica which was printed on hemp paper for 150 years:

* All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s; Hemp Paper Reconsidered, Jack Frazier, 1974.

* It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1800s; LA Times, Aug. 12, 1981.

* REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.

* George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers GREW HEMP; Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.

* Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow’s export to England; Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer.

* For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. The word ‘canvas’ is Dutch for hemp; Webster’s New World Dictionary.

* 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.

* The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.

* The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century; State Archives.

* Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.

* Rembrandt’s, Gainsborough’s, Van Gogh’s as well as most early canvas paintings were principally painted on hemp linen.

* In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs; Department of Agriculture

* Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935; Sherman Williams Paint Co. testimony before Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.

* Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONSTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, ‘grown from the soil,’ had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.

* Hemp called ‘Billion Dollar Crop.’ It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.

* Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article entitled ‘The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.’ It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th Century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The following information comes directly from the United States Department of Agriculture’s 1942 14-minute film encouraging and instructing ‘patriotic American farmers’ to grow 350,000 acres of hemp each year for the war effort:

‘…(When) Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable…

…Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese…American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our industries…

…the Navy’s rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!’

Certified proof from the Library of Congress; found by the research of Jack Herer, refuting claims of other government agencies that the 1942 USDA film ‘Hemp for Victory’ did not exist.

Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that hemp produces 4 times as much pulp as wood with at least 4 to 7 times less pollution.

From Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938:
‘It has a short growing season…It can be grown in any state…The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year’s crop. The dense shock of leaves, 8 to 12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds.

…hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.’

In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought America out of the Great Depression.

William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst’s grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit, stood to lose billions because of hemp.

In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. Dupont’s Annual Report urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made from oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of Dupont’s business.

THE TRICKS

Andrew Mellon became Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury and Dupont’s primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word: ‘marihuana’ and pushed it into the consciousness of America.

MEDIA MANIPULATION

A media blitz of ‘yellow journalism’ raged in the late 1920s and 1930s. Hearst’s newspapers ran stories emphasizing the horrors of marihuana. The menace of marihuana made headlines. Readers learned that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to loose morality.

Films like ‘Reefer Madness’ (1936), ‘Marihuana: Assassin of Youth’ (1935) and ‘Marihuana: The Devil’s Weed’ (1936) were propaganda designed by these industrialists to create an enemy. Their purpose was to gain public support so that anti-marihuana laws could be passed.

Examine the following quotes from ‘The Burning Question’ aka REEFER
MADNESS:
*a violent narcotic.
*acts of shocking violence.
*incurable insanity.
*soul-destroying effects.
*under the influence of the drug he killed his entire family with an axe.
*more vicious, more deadly even than these soul-destroying drugs (heroin, cocaine) is the menace of marihuana!

Reefer Madness did not end with the usual ‘the end.’ The film concluded with these words plastered on the screen: TELL YOUR CHILDREN.

In the 1930s, people were very naive; even to the point of ignorance. The masses were like sheep waiting to be led by the few in power. They did not challenge authority. If the news was in print or on the radio, they believed it had to be true. They told their children and their children grew up to be the parents of the baby-boomers.

On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law or the bill that outlawed hemp was directly brought to the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee is the only one that can introduce a bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees. The Chairman of the Ways and Means, Robert Doughton, was a Dupont supporter. He insured that the bill would pass Congress.

Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, testified too late on behalf of the American Medical Association. He told the committee that the reason the AMA had not denounced the Marihuana Tax Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that marihuana was/is hemp.

Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly menace they had been reading about on Hearst’s front pages was in fact passive hemp. The AMA understood hemp to be a MEDICINE found in numerous healing products sold over the last hundred years.

In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known became a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.

Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism, Anslinger now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to fight.

Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people. These great problems could be reversed if we industrialized hemp. Natural biomass could provide all of the planet’s energy needs that are currently supplied by fossil fuels. We have consumed 80% of our oil and gas reserves. We need a renewable resource. Hemp could be the solution to soaring gas prices.

THE WONDER PLANT

Hemp has a higher quality fiber than wood fiber. Far fewer caustic chemicals are required to make paper from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn yellow and is very durable. The plant grows quickly to maturity in a season where trees take a lifetime.

ALL PLASTIC PRODUCTS SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP SEED OIL. Hempen plastics are biodegradable! Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based plastics, the ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature; they do not break down and will do great harm in the future. The process to produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics will not ruin the rivers as Dupont and other petrochemical companies have done. Ecology does not fit in with the plans of the Oil Industry and the political machine. Hemp products are safe and natural.

MEDICINES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. We should go back to the days when the AMA supported hemp cures. ‘Medical Marijuana’ is given out legally to only a handful of people while the rest of us are forced into a system that relies on chemicals. Hemp is only healthy for the human body.

WORLD HUNGER COULD END. A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They have two essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming hemp seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.

CLOTHES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time. You could hand clothing, made from hemp, down to your grandchildren. Today, there are American companies that make hemp clothing; usually 50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made it ILLEGAL TO WEAR hemp clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into jail for wearing quality jeans?

The world is crazy…but that does not mean you have to join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news. Tell people, and that includes your children, the truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the word ‘marijuana.’ Realize the history that created it. Make it politically incorrect to say or print the M-word. Fight against the propaganda (designed to favor the agenda of the super rich) and the bullshit. Hemp must be utilized in the future. We need a clean energy source to save our planet. INDUSTRIALIZE HEMP!

The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a million dollars a day to Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other similar agencies. We have all seen their commercials. Now, their motto is: ‘It’s more dangerous than we thought.’ Lies from the powerful corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive and well today.

The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say: If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang wars. The latest anti-hemp commercials say: If you buy a joint…you are promoting TERRORISM! The new enemy (terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any way THEY see fit.

There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay your taxes to; the war-makers and nature destroyers. With your funding, they are killing the world right in front of your eyes. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY TOBACCO. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL.

Ingesting THC, hemp’s active agent, has a positive effect; relieving asthma and glaucoma. A joint tends to alleviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy. You are able to eat on hemp. This is a healthy state of being.

The hemp plant is an ALIEN plant. There is physical evidence that hemp is not like any other plant on this planet. One could conclude that it was brought here for the benefit of humanity. Hemp is the ONLY plant where the males appear one way and the females appear very different, physically! No one ever speaks of males and females in regard to the plant kingdom because plants do not show their sexes; except for hemp. To determine what sex a certain, normal, Earthly plant is: You have to look internally, at its DNA. A male blade of grass (physically) looks exactly like a female blade of grass. The hemp plant has an intense sexuality.

HEMP IS ILLEGAL BECAUSE BILLIONAIRES WANT TO REMAIN BILLIONAIRES!

Last updated 17/11/2005

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September 25, 2008 by Lance Bugle.

Overland Park, Kansas - This is trippy. Ghosts are everywhere and you just don’t know it, if you don’t believe me then check out the video and comment with your better idea. I betcha it is a ghost, I’ve seen some crazy things in my life, seems ghostly to me. You ever seen a ghost?

Posted in Kansas, Crime, Commentary, News | Print | No Comments »