Am I the only one who thinks that the microphones for General' Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are the only important microphones in the room, yet those are the only two that do not seem to work.  

After 40 minutes of opening statements from the Democratic chairman and vice chairman, then from the committee's minority Republican counterparts, Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D) says "This is a very important hearing."  No kidding.  The world is watching what is clearly the most important congressional hearing in a decade.  This hearing is certainly more important than any of the pointless exercises that Congressman Waxman paraded before us earlier this year.  Yet the chair has somehow failed to convey this  same sense of importance to the staff.

It's time to hear from the two men in the room who really matter.  All eyes are on General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker as they prepare to speak.  But somehow, someone failed to test their microphones.  Yep, that's right, neither microphone is working.  While waiting for the technical guys to fix the problem, we can hear Congressman Dan Burton (R) telling the chair "I'm not trying to lecture you."  Mr. Burton is standing at least 6 feet away from the chairman's open microphone, and the words come through clearly and distinctly over my CSPAN feed.  

Before asking the General to speak, Chairman Skelton apologized for the hearing room's "bad acoustics."  Through that open mic, we can hear  Congressman Duncan Hunter (R) whispering to the chairman, "that group there is all together," speaking about an organized group of the protesters in the room.  When the chairman orders one of that group be removed, we can hear the protester shouting his slogans as he is leaving.  Later, while the General was speaking, yet when a protester in the back begins shouting and we can also hear this woman very clearly.  So much for those "bad acoustics."

Every microphone in the room works, except the mics that matter.  We can hear the usual bombast during opening statements from both Democrats and Republicans very clearly.  Whispered conversations between the chair and others can be heard distinctly.  The protesters in the back can be heard by the microphones in this room despite the "bad acoustics".  But the General and the Ambassador, the two gentleman who came to report to America, well, they'll just have to wait while Congress addresses another one of those pesky technical problems.