Please help! Recording from microphone
 

Please help! I'm trying to record the leader's debate, but can't seem to get recording from the microphone to work. Audacity has recording device set as mic, but doesn't record anything. amixer says:

...
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive
Capture exclusive group: 0
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [on]
Front Left: Capture [on]
Front Right: Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic As Center/LFE',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost (+20dB)',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Select',0
Capabilities:
Mono:
...

I tried doing "rec -s w -c 2 -r 44100 debate.wav" and it didn't give any errors, but the file has no sound. I'm not sure what settings to change to make this work. Please help!

try running gamix and check if playing with the "mic" sliders etc. helps

I set all of the sliders in gamix to maximum. The capture device is Mic. The only change is that my speakers have started a high-pitched buzzing. Still no sound being recorded from the microphone :(

Drat. Are there by chance any Canadians out there who were better prepared than me and taped the debate?