I'm not going to pretend that I'm the first to notice this, but have you thought about the appalling state of non-debate that is served up on every cable news network and on my beloved Fox in particular? 
Yes, I know that TV is a realm of fantasy, but I saw a segment on Fox this past Wednesday morning, (9/13 AM) that infuriated me so much that I have to say something about it. It just brought to a head something that has bugged me for years.
The segment I refer to was billed as a debate/shootout (insert your favorite misnomer) or something like that, between Bob Beckel and a couple of presumably smart and witty conservatives. I won't mention their names but one was a somewhat contraversial blond icon and one was a former judge and inept New York Senatorial candidate. It should have been quite easy for either of them to crush Beckel into the dirt and leave him dazed and bleeding but oddly enough, they were unable to accomplish this. 
Of course there was no actual debate. 
Now, I am just some nameless troll typing away in my office, but let me tell you why this is. I have no way to verify what I'm going to say but it seems so obvious that I'm sure that I am correct. 
There was no real debate and there is no real debate on any of these misnamed debates because when these talking heads are asked to appear on the air they look at the topic they are supposed to discuss and prepare some comments and talking points. Then they show up in New York or somewhere and repeat their memorized script. The only non-scripted words you will hear are the barbs they throw out at each other as they fight for the right to deliver their pre-prepared lines.
In a debate the participants actually listen to each other and repsond in the moment to the arguments their opponents present. In a real debate when your counterpart speaks words that are untrue, when he or she engages in sophistry, when they rely on irrelevant, misleading red herrings you call them on it. You focus on the truth and facts and if you have to beat them over the head for an hour with the first words out of their mouth then you do so.  
To merely sit and smirk and roll your eyes while your debating partner throws out one lie after another is to be complicit in the lie. A lot of brilliant and witty conservatives do a great job of destroying the lies of the left in the safety of their office. They are brutal when they are typing. They are dead on with their criticisms when they are in a hall in some university in front of an audience overwhelmingly made up of young conservatives. They bravely dodge pies thrown at them and live to tell the tale to adoring crowds in book stores across America. Some even tour the nation to engage in a battle of ideas with tired former Cliton adminastration officials.
But lo!
Put them in a TV studio across from the accomplished liers of the left and they appear to have been castrated.
It seems to me that there are a number of reasons for this.
First there is the "it's not my show" excuse. This is particulary pathetic. Without the talking heads from the right there is no show, no Fox network at all, and I am focusing a lot of my criticism on Fox in case you've missed that.
Then there is the "I only have a moment to make my point" excuse. This makes me more angry than any of the others. There is only a moment to read your prepared comments. Your script be damned! If I want to have the benefit of your carefully thought out ideas then I'll buy your books. Then there is the "do you actually expect me to stop the whole train for that (I probably can't use any of the words I'm thinking of, can I?) uhh....person?" Yes, yes, you're just too important to really stop for a moment and belt your opponent in the teeth, right?
Well, to continue the train metaphor, what's the point of working your way up to the engineers cabin if you're not willing to use that position to make sure the train runs over your opponent?
Now I'll give you a couple of reasons that I believe really explain why all the champions of the right sit like well trained little puppies as the liers of the left cooly flood the airwaves with their very effective misinformation.
They are afraid to do anything else.
Conservatives like to believe that they are right because, in part, they are just sooo much better than their liberal friends. More about their "friends" later. They won't stoop to the level of the left. We're good, moral people aren't we? We fight fair, we're not rude like they are. Interupting another person is wrong. Someone might criticize me about it later and I get enough criticism already.
And then there is the "my good friend from across the isle" BS.
Only problem is that it's not BS. They really do like their prevaracating counterparts. Ever seen Hannity & Colmbes? Ever wanted to throw up while someone stammers "oh Alan, Alan, Alan! I love you, but..."? They really, really do love love him and all the rest of the cockroachs of the left.
Oh, and let's not forget another very, very important reason. They are afraid that if they are not good little girls and boys then they will be deemed persona non grata on the shows in question. God forbid! What if I can't be on TV anymore! Book sales will plummet!
News flash to conservatives: the left reviles you. They are more than ready to stab you in the back at a moments notice. They really, truly would be overjoyed to dance on your grave.
This fascade of collegiality has to go. If it is a fascade. And if it's not a fascade then you are already doomed to lose.
I was a nice little kid when I started grade school. I was good to everyone but I found out quick that not evryone was going to be nice to me. After loosing a few teeth on the playground I changed my opinion fast.
I love the left too. After I grind their bones to make my bread. I love them with butter and jam.
It's a savory treat.
Too bad our "champions" don't have a taste for this kind of fare.

Pax,
proghole

Let me begin by offering my conservative greetings to all my fellow bloggers and all Town Hall readers. This is my first blog, my first post and my first foray into the deep end of the political pool. I would hope that I can introduce some ideas that may be new or perhaps just say things that others have the good taste and common sense not to say. When it comes to political thought, I tend to be in a frequent state of passionate rage and (I think) righteous indignation. I just hope I don't drown in the process.
I've named this blog Burn Baby Burn because, as a product of the 1960's, I am well aware of what are and are not effective tools of political change. As a teenager I marched in a demonstration protesting the mining of Haiphong harbor. I watched the fiasco at the Chicago Democratic convention in 1968. I demanded that my grade school teachers explain to me why the LAPD used shotguns on the rioters in Watts. To sort of paraphrase an old saw; if you're not a radical when you're 12 you've got no heart and if you're not a fascist by the time you're 40 you've got no spine. The tactics of the left worked and they worked quite well unfortunately.
Jerry Rubin and Tom whats-his-name (you know, the ex- Mr. Jane Fonda) will never be elected president and no one of their ilk will be president anytime real soon but they will determine what your kids learn in school. They will shape the way the next generation thinks and if that doesn't scare the hell out of you then you surely have your head deep, deep in the sand. They do control what is available in your local library, they do control your city council (especially if you live in California like I do) and they do interpret or more correctly make the law because they control the court system. Who runs the colleges, who runs the law schools? Who makes the movies you  see, who produces the shows you watch on TV?
So what? You already know all this if you've logged onto Town Hall.
What I don't hear, what I don't see is anyone calling for conservatives to use exactly the same tactics that the left used to get to where they are now. All the good, traditional conservatives, the wise men that I like to listen to, the Hewitt's, the Medved's poo poo the kind of direct action I am going to be calling for in this blog. Worse than that, they would and do call it un-American.
I'll tell you what I call un-American. Losing. Getting the stuffing beaten out of you day after day while you pat yourself on the back because you're too good to get down in the gutter with your opponents. 
I would much prefer to win the fight and walk away with some dirt on my hands than to lose and have only a false sense of superiority to console myself. Whether you like it or not, whether you realize it or not, we are all involved in the fight right now. And it's up to you to choose if your bloody nose will be all for naught.
By now all you good, traditional conservatives will be saying "this guy is a radical, he's no conservative, he's a dangerous voice of downright foolishness". 
I am a radical. I've always been a radical in everything I do. 
Think that if it comforts you. Attack me, flame me. Please do.
Let me help you in that effort. I'm nearly 50 and I still have hair past my shoulders. I look like some kind of dirty musician because I am, or was. I operated a printing press for almost 30 years to actually pay my bills and I have the herniated discs, the sciatica and the chronic muscle disfunction to prove it. In case you're not aware of this, life can be tough on people who aren't ex law proffesors, former White House aides, TV personalities, etc. Don't get me wrong either. I have only myself to blame. No one forced me to do any of the stupid things I've done.  I spent years drinking and using drugs before I got myself off of them with my own effort. I still have to take opiates every day because of the pain I live with. I've destroyed my body but not my brain. Scoff at that if you like, but not all recovered druggies burned out their brains, some were just lucky or perhaps blessed and forgiven.
It was radical to think I might be a succsessful musician. It was radical to work harder than everyone else just because I can't stand slackers. Maybe it's also radical and foolish to think that anyone will even care about the kind of thing I intends to fill this blog with.
Perhaps things might get ugly (within the confines of the rules of this site of course).
But the truth and reality can be ugly.
Or perhaps that's just the way it seems when looking up from the dirt.

Pax,
Tom.