I hear you.  But if his posts are just left without comments, will that help or hurt?  At a site with a lot of commenters, he could be easily ignored.  But when there are so few forum posts and commenters, there might be the danger of people assuming that his ideas are accepted and supported if nobody argues against them.  I'm interested in what people think about that hypothesis. 

I sometimes try to draw Ken into real discussion, but it does seem useless--he is a mouthpiece for the Republican party and Big Oil and doesn't seem to have many interests apart from amassing capital and dismissing anyone who doesn't have money at the top of their personal value system.

I don't bother reading any of his linked nonsense, but the responses have provided me with good material to fight republican talking points.

by desertpear on 07/30/2008 04:37:20 PM EST

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to read these discussions. I'm with pear on this (surprise surprise) as I've written elsewhere he makes for a good punching bag and seems to be a good sport about it most of the time. Try to draw him into a substantive conversation about anything and you'll hear crickets (just check out this thread). Most of the time he'd rather just spar. That's fine. And frankly, even though he seems confined to talking points, let's face it--that's the nature of our opposition these days. So we might as well use the opportunity he provides to craft our responses. He made this very point to me shortly after I started posting regularly and I've come to agree. I occasionally find that I learn from more from others' clever responses to his nonsense than from Cenk even on the same topics.

by hazmat on 07/30/2008 06:02:31 PM EST

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Well, that's why I asked.  Those are solid reasons for responding to that clown.  I won't be reading his nonsense, but I now why you guys do.

One thing to remember about Cenk, that dude voted for McCain 8 years ago.  There was no excuse for a knowledgeable adult to vote Rebublican as late as 2000 (which is why Dave was all over him about it).  I'm 28, and that party has been fraudulent my entire life.  The Democrats are horrendous, but the Republicans are decidedly worse.  So, one has to wonder, "What the hell was he doing still voting Republican?"  With that in mind, he seem like a pretty cool dude and, of course, I love his show.

Really though, brothas always wonder why anyone who isn't white would even consider voting Republican.  I remember seeing a poll a while back saying that Bush's approval rating was 2% amongst black people.  The first thing I thought was, "The margin of error is +/-3%; how do they know his approval rating isn't 0%?"

by DStroyer4 on 07/30/2008 11:41:06 PM EST

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Sure, Cenk was mistaken, but for the most part he realizes the error of his ways (although he STILL doesn't realize just how competely terrible Reagan was and he STILL is wrong on "free trade").

But seriously, think about Arianna Huffington. She was hard-core Republican for a long time.  Now she gives us a great progressive website, Huffington Post (Bonus: it's Dave's favorite!).

by Tom Hanc on 08/01/2008 10:48:24 AM EST

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But I have to recommend Ken's links.  They are hilarious.  They almost always prove he's wrong.

by ProfRich on 07/31/2008 11:47:23 PM EST

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but that's exactly how I've always looked at it.

by Spencer on 08/01/2008 04:10:45 AM EST

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