Ken Padgett

Organ transplants save thousands of lives every year, but many more people die because there aren't enough organs available. In the US, about 100,000 adults and children are waiting for organ transplants, and over 6,500 people die each year while waiting on a transplant list. Recent polls indicate that as many as 85% of Americans support organ donation, but only about 30% have formally expressed their willingness to donate. Most states have opt-in programs via driver's license or state ID card applications. But with the continuing shortage of transplantable organs, some are suggesting a switch to an opt-out system (also called implied consent). With implied consent if people don't specifically opt-out, they will be considered potential organ donors upon their death. Opt-out systems are unnecessarily coercive in that they force people to make a choice or have that choice taken away from them and they don't take into account the wishes of the family. Another variation o...

Why is support for Republican ideas so strong among many of the people who are suffering the most because of those same ideas? It’s because of how skilled Republicans are at framing issues in ways that are beneficial to them and because their messaging is more effective due to the fact that it is much better organized and better financed than Democrats. Republicans would have you believe that Obama is solely responsible for the bad economy, as if everything was going fine till he took office.  However, the facts are otherwise: Obama didn't create the economic crisis. Obama didn't start the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama has never had a free hand to do what he wanted to do. Republicans have openly bragged about doing everything they could to make Obama a one-term President. Republicans have sabotaged every legislative attempt to promote job growth so as to improve their chances in the next election. Of course Obama and the Democrats deserve plenty of blame for the ...

SARAH PALIN: "He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS4C7bvHv2w What is even more laughable than this latest Palin word salad is the lengths that Palin apologists have been going to claim her comments are somehow factual: "Clanging church-bells in the middle of the night probably did warn British spies & double-agents that something was afoot. Sarah was referring to the Revolutionary spirit of resistance to British rule as a "warning" to the British that the colonists were fed up, and not gonna take it any more. And, can any Sarah-bashing know-it-all provide video or links to news reports of Paul Revere's Ride? Sarah Palin's history lesson is as goo...

Creation of a no-fly zone is not the easy solution that saber-rattling right-wingers seem to think it is. The first step in creating a no-fly zone is to destroy all radar and missile sites and airfields. That's an act of war that requires a substantial commitment of US forces at a time when we are already involved in two wars we can't pay for or staff now. Our military is also exhausted and their equipment is worn out. And what happens when the no-fly zone doesn't stop Gaddafi from destroying the rebels, which he is in the process of doing right now with mostly ground forces? Once we've made a military committment, do we just walk away when that doesn't work, as it surely won't, or do we then send in the Marines? And why do right-wingers seem to think it is our responsibility to insure Gaddafi's defeat? He is no threat to us and we are not the world's policemen. If the Europeans want to take him on let them do all the heavy lifting for a change. The...

Hooking up a computer to a plasma TV has opened up many possibilities for playback of DVDs I've purchased and media files that I've downloaded off the internet. Since playback from a hard disc is much more reliable than it is from a DVD, I copy all DVDs to my computer that I plan to watch.  It wasn't long before I was adding a couple of 2TB drives to my computer to hold a giant library of media but even that has turned out to not be enough storage for everything because my library keeps getting bigger and bigger. But, where there's a will (and money) there's always a way. Want lots of storage for your home theater PC?  I built this one myself:   10TB USB Disc Array for Home Theater PC This 10TB USB array cost about $565 for everything and all of the parts were purchased from Amazon. Western Digital 2TB External Drives 5 @ $89 each = $449 American DJ PC-100A 8 Channel Power Strip = $30 Penn-Elcom R1194/3UK Rack Shelf 3U = $45 Power Strip Adapter Liberato...

Republicans took control of the House last November by taunting President Obama and the Democrats with "Where are the jobs? Republicans said their campaign was about creating jobs, but since they took office it’s clear that cutting government spending comes first, last and always -- now that they've cut taxes for the rich. How can Republicans fight for massive tax breaks for the rich and as soon as they get that immediately pivot into being reformed big spenders who now claim to be deficit hawks, and do it without looking like hypocrites? Good question, but it appears that they ARE getting away with it and, much to the dismay of many who supported him, President Obama has also bought into this nonsense.  Republicans say a smaller government eventually will spur private-sector job growth. Yeah, eventually. However in the mean time, government spending pays for research, infrastructure, education and other programs that create or protect existing public- and private-se...

In December, a study from University of Maryland researchers found that Fox News viewers were vastly more misinformed than news consumers who depended largely on other outlets for their information.  Fox News immediately attempted to discredit the study, but leaks from Fox News staffers and consistency in messaging have shown a disturbing pattern of talking points that are repeated on Fox News throughout the day. A June 4, 2009 internal memo from top Fox News Channel editor Bill Sammon was leaked recently,that said, “FYI: My cursory check of Obama’s 6,000-word speech to the Muslim world did not turn up the words ‘terror,’ ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorism’.” Immediately, numerous Fox personalities grabbed the ball and ran with it; Megyn Kelly, Brett Bauer, Shep Smith, and other personalities on supposedly unbiased ‘news’ shows, even Sammon himself, used the fact that the president’s speechwriters had chosen to avoid that particular word choice as unnecessarily inflammatory...

For the Hannity show on Fox News, GOP pollster Frank Luntz gathered some Republicans in Iowa together to watch Bill O'Reilly's interview with President Obama during the Superbowl Pregame Show. During Luntz’s questioning, one person claimed that President Obama's religious convictions guide his policies. Luntz asked her to clarify and the woman said, “I believe that he (Obama) is a Muslim.” Luntz then asked the rest of the group how many believed Obama is Muslim. Nearly half raised their hands. Many Republicans believe that Obama is a Muslim despite Obama's repeated and well publicized identification with the Christian faith. Sadly, the Iowa focus group did reflect the national Republican consensus. Last August, in a Time poll 46% of Republicans said they believe Obama is a Muslim. 46%!!!  Why are Republicans so ill-informed? It’s probable that some of them know better, but they repeat the lies about Obama because they think it helps their cause. As for those who a...

The following statement from Bill O'Reilly represents the view of most Conservatives: "For decades, the choice in Egypt has been: Does America support Mubarak or the Islamic fundamentalists? Obviously we take Mubarak." It's not a choice between Mubarak and Islamic fundamentalists, and it never has been. After Mubarak, the Egyptian Army has the most power and they will be the ones who take over when he is pushed out. The Muslim Brotherhood is relatively weak, but Conservatives are quite happy to use them as a boogyman to justify continued support for Mubarak. Supporting dictatorship over self-determination during a popular uprising against a despot that we have financed for many years will only further damage US relations with the Egyptian people. Popular uprisings in the Middle East are fraught with danger for US interests, but are we going to be true to our core value of self-determination for everyone or will we continue to do what is expedient? Conservatives ...

The Republican party has been waging class warfare since Reagan and they have been so effective that they have all but destroyed America's middle class. Here are two important Republican code phrases everyone should understand: Cut Spending -- When Republicans talk about cutting spending they're not talking about that welfare program for corporations and the rich called the Defense Budget. They're not talking about ending the military adventures overseas. They're not talking about cutting subsidies for huge agribusiness like ethanol. And they're not talking about the hugely expensive and failed War on Drugs that has left America with dubious distinction of having the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. No, they're only talking about cutting "entitlements."  Republicans would steal from the middle class by taking money they've spent their working lives paying for through payroll deductions for Social Security and Medicare. Actually...

    Republicans have taken over the House of Representatives, but after all that was said prior to and after the midterms about how the "adults" were now going to be in charge let's take a look at what they've done so far: 1. They read the Constitution What was the point of reading the Constitution? According to Republicans, House members needed to be reminded of what was in it. Anyone who paid attention to the reading would have noticed that nearly all members left the floor just as soon as they read their tiny bit. So it's doubtful that any benefit was derived from that bit of political theatre. 2. They debated and then repealed healthcare reform. Instead of the groundswell of Democratic support that Republicans predicted, only 3 Democrats voted for repeal and these were Blue Dog Democrats who who had already voted against the bill the first time around. The repeal bill will now die in the Senate despite Republican whining that Senate Democrats won't let t...

  The Tucson Tragedy Where do we go from here? The far right has been trying to inoculate itself against any criticism of its role in stirring up anger and hatred to unprecedented levels in the past 20 years. We've all seen the rallies with nasty signs, the faces contorted in anger, the display of weapons, and we've heard the vitriolic spew from Tea Partiers and others on the far right who claim Democrats are destroying America. The fires of hatred are being stoked daily by far right talking heads on radio and television, the blogosphere and through chain emails. Some on the Left did speculate on the motivations of the Tucson murderer without any evidence whatsoever, except for the fact that the intended victim was a Democrat and a supporter of immigration reform. That was wrong, but it was also somewhat understandable given the way cable news operates after a breaking story of such magnitude. However the Right has seized upon this as an excuse to claim that they were be...

    Ken Padgett grew up in a suburb of Washington DC. He joined the army at 17 and spent the majority of his 3 years of military service in Germany. After the Army Ken worked several years as an electronics technician and a master scheduler. He has been self-employed since 1984; first as a desktop publisher, then a network engineer, a freelance writer, and a webmaster. Padgett created his first personal web site in 1997 and his first business web site in 2000. Since then he has become a very successful internet entrepreneur. Ken's interest in writing has led him to create several web sites devoted to publishing his articles. Agilewriter contains many of the biography and history articles he wrote as a freelancer. His Guide to Hopi Kachina Dolls describes their history and how kachinas are made, and also explores the origins and history of the Hopi Kachina Cult . Ken has written a History of Blackface and Minstrel Sho...