September 26, 1960. Presidential Candidates Richard Nixon and John Kennedy face off on national radio and television in a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters and moderated by Howard K Smith. What started off as a grand tradition has ended up in a sham.

Until 1976, political debates had to be sponsored by a neutral party and made available to all broadcast outlets to qualify as a “news event” without triggering equal time provisions of broadcast law. Politriksters managed to manipulate the law in the mid 1970's to wriggle out of that noose, so now the debates can be put on by anyone, even a broadcast entity, and anyone can be included or excluded at will, as long as there can be some “reasonable justification” for the exclusion or inclusion.

Meadow muffins.

What we have here is a return to the carnival roots of political debating. Where anyone can rig anything to happen and it turns the event on it's ear.

Take last week's CNN-YouTube Republican “debate”, for example.

This alleged debate was a farce and a sham. Instead of asking important questions, here's a list of the questions, provided by YouTube, of what was asked of the candidates:

• Will you make America a 'sanctuary city' country?

• Will you pledge to veto amnesty for illegal immigrants?

• With immigration reform failing, will I have a job?

• Lower college tuition rates - military families or illegals?

• Do you believe in a conspiracy to make a new union?

• What measures will you take to tackle the national debt?

• What are the top three federal programs you would cut?

• Do you support a 'Fair Tax'?

• Will you pledge never to raise taxes?

• Will you eliminate farm subsidies?

• How will you keep lead-laced toys out of my home?

• What is your opinion on gun control?

• Do you believe in a required written exam for gun ownership?

• How many guns do you own?

• What will you do to reduce crime in the inner cities?

• If abortion is illegal, what should the punishment be?

• Would you sign a federal abortion ban?

• On the Death Penalty, what would Jesus do?

• Do you believe every word of The Holy Bible

• How would you repair the image of America?

• Is waterboarding torture?

• Will you make a permanent commitment to the people of Iraq?

• Is your campaign exploiting 9/11?

• Should Vice-President Dick Cheney have so much power?

• A gay Brigadier General asks a question (Don't ask, don't Tell)

• Do you accept the support of log cabin republicans?

• Repay the $2 trillion borrowed from Social Security?

• What is your vision for human space exploration?

• Why don't many African-Americans vote Republican?

• What does the "stars and bars" flag represent?

• How can we repair the infrastructure of America?

• Mr. Paul, are you going to run as an independent?

• Yankees vs. Red Sox

These are the most important questions that these candidates should be asked?

What about the economy, energy policy, NAFTA/GATT and the WTO?

But worse than CNN's question selection was their screening process. Brig Gen Keith Kerr, who asked about the Don't ask, Don't tell policy of the military, is a co-chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's National Military Veterans group. The man who asked about the log cabin Republicans is an avowed Obma supporter as listed in his YouTube profile. The question on the punishment for Abortion was asked by a young woman who in her response wore a John Edwards T-shirt. (In her defense, she may be a poor college student who couldn't afford better.) LeeAnn Anderson who asked the lead paint toy question is, in fact a United Steelworkers advocate. The question about repairing the image of America was asked by a former intern at the Council on American-Islamic Relations!

But wait, it gets better.

Now CNN and other apologists are accusing the people uncoveirng this information of “cyber-stalking”.

Really!

Here's an inportant note for the people at CNN.

Google is your friend. Use it.

All these people were ferreted out in just a few minutes doing simple Google searches.

Do your own background checking. Or others, not so kind, will be doing it for you.

Meanwhile, Helena Andrews over at the Politico seems to be amazed that we're so naïve that we sould expect debates to be fair, honest, and above board rather than going back to the carny roots of that other great exhibition, professional wrestling.

Helena, I would have thought that we would be past the need to stack opposition questioners in this type of forum, but I do agree with your pro wrestling analogy. As my old friend, the late Bruce Amsterdam used to say, the difference between Pro Wrestling and Politics is that there is more integrity in the Squared Circle – and their costumes are much better.

Oh, speaking of CAIR, they're being sued by one Michael Weiner, nee Michael Savage, over their attempts to censure his show and get advertisers to pull out. Savage claims are potentially winnable as he is claiming Copyright Infringment. Seems CAIR is using about four minutes worth of clips of the Savage show on their website to villify the host. CAIR is claiming a “Fair Use” exemption, while Savage says the clips are cut up in such a manner that they are taken out of context of the original conversation. Whichever side wins, we should see some interesting court re-writing of copyright and fair use applications.

So who is this quote really about?

"So you decide which makes more sense: Entrust our country to someone who is ready on day one ... or to put America in the hands of someone with little national or international experience, who started running for president the day (they) arrived in the U.S. Senate?"

Honestly, it could apply to Hillary or Obama, but she's the one who had the brass cajones to actually say that about Obama. Here's a hint: being the wife of the president doesn't count as “On the Job” experience.

Mama, Bubba Brown, and I just returned from a daytrip to beautiful Ely Nevada.

Ely is what I remember small town America to be, and what I wish all small towns could be.

It's a town that has refused to die, and just keeps fighting.

There is a vibrance on it's streets and a spark in the citizenry that is amazing and wonderful.

We even met a refugee from East Las Vegas, who lived mere blocks from where we do, and said she got out of town because she was scared to live there anymore. It wasn't as safe as it was 20 years ago.

We took the short route up to Ely and the long way back. Along the way we saw another vibrant small town, Caliente, and a couple of other towns that were like the chicken that had it's head cut off. They were dead, they just hadn't figured it out yet.

Wyatt Cox, like the beggar in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, isn't dead just yet. Read more at wyattcox.net and even let him know what you think!