Liveblogging Hitch v. Galloway, Plus Live Thread

It's actually beginning quite late... starting about now. Click.

It's organized by Stop the War, and they moderator is some flunky in George Galloway's Support Genocidal Tyrants Committee, so our boy Hitch is in the lions' den.

Well, maybe not lions' den. Saber-toothed peace-pussies' dean, I guess.

Damn... this might interfere with the INXS elimination show.

Sporadic live-blogging below, maybe, after I get myself some smokes and a beer.

"Those Leaflets You Were Handing Out Outside Like An Idiot" Update: Michael Totten has the text of the leaflets Hitch was distributing.

Thanks to AllahPundit.

Correction: Groundskeeper Willie said that Hitch was handing the leaflets out, but it was actually some conservative supporters, including Judith Weiss of the blog Kesher Talks.

Timekeeper will be Elizabeth Wrigley-Field. That's actually her real name. Her parents were named "Wrigley" and "Field."

Hitchens seems to have a fair number of fans in the audience, unless leftists are just being respectful, which I doubt.

Asks for a moment of silence for those murdered by the people George Galloway champions. He didn't say that, exactly, but that's the implication. Nice.

Runs through consequences of anti-war movement, had they been heeded. Slobo, Kuwait destroyed, Taliban in control of Afghanistan and still hosting Al Qaeda. Notes, pointedly, that if he had that sort of political history, he would have a little more humility about demanding answers from those who finally said enough is enough.

Notes four reasons to invade a country, says Iraq satisfied all four. Gets quite a hand after concluding this oral paragraph.

Hitch takes delight in fact that Saddam Hussein will soon be in the dock, although he says that some here (Galloway) do not.

On to Kurdistan, one of his biggest causes, of course. Smell of the chemical burns on women, mass graves rotting. Nevertheless, they forge ahead with democratization.

Another consequence: Qaddafi disarmed. Revealed that provenance of his weaponry and research was the AQ Khan (of Pakistan) nuclear network.

Notes that when Qaddafi disarmed, he went to Bush and Blair, not Kofi Annan.

Quoting Sentimental Education, says Kofi Annan so corrupt he would have gladly have paid for the pleasure of selling himself.

Lists Arab/Muslim leaders saying that this (the fall of Iraq) was the "falling of the Wall," meaning the beginning of democratization in the Arab/Muslim world.

Calls GG a "guttersnipe" for failing to testify at UN (?). Gets hooted, jeered, and shouted down. Scolds lefties: "If you only knew how you sounded when you do that, Comrades..."

Jesus, now he's laying into the wood. Says GG is always looking for next Fascist Fatherland, Soviet Union let him down, so now he goes to Syria. Discusses his business partnership with worst butchers in the world. Says GG is "far beneath your contempt."

Wow. Game on.

Okay, Galloway doesn't seem to have showed up. In his place, apparently, Hitch will be debating Groundskeeper Willie.

Groundskeeper Willie (hereafter, GKW) notes that Hitchens "bravely" stood with Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine, which hijacked many airplanes and such. Basically tying Hitch to his former (?) support of terrorists. Ah, well. Hitch can't get over his love affair with Palestinian terrorists; not news.

Praises Hitch for opposing 1991 Iraq war and embarassing Charleton Heston by asking him to name 4 countries Iraq borders.

Notes that when Hitch opposed 1991 war, you could still smell the chemical burns in Kurdistan.

Big laugh-line (?): "What you are witnessing is the first metamorphasis of a butterfly into a slug." What a slug leaves behind is a trail of slime.

Incidentally, GKW, slugs don't transform into butterflies. Slugs transform into bigger slugs. They're entirely different fucking species, nitwit.

Calls Hitch's works "Goebellian."

Invokes Cindy Sheehan. What a shock.

Says his biggest hero is Charles James Fox, barred from Parliament for supporting American Revolution and French Revolution. Makes joke that one day revolutionary America would be ruled by "religious fundamentalists," like Pat Robertson.

Another shock: Such a country might not be able to pick up its dead bodies after greatest disaster (Katrina, shock) due to its incompetence and malevolence.

But Fox would have said, come what may, "I have no right to occupy them."

Compares Islamist terrorist to Irish rebels in 20's and 30's. Called a bunch of "priest-ridden, bog-trotting, Gaelic obscurantists." What the fuck this could mean I don't know, but I now have a new insult for my Irish friends.

Says Hitch wants a moment of silence for the 145 killed today, but won't mention the "100,000 massacred by Americans in Fallujah," citing the ludicrous Lancet "study."

Wishes Hitch would pick up a gun and fight. I hope Hitch suggests that he fight for HIS buddies.

He does in fact sound like fucking Hitler, by way of Groundkeeper Willie, of course. Dave was dead-on about that. His whole cadence is Hitleresque. As are his obscene distortions and praise of vicious, genocidal fascism.

Blah blah, Britain and America biggest two rogue states in the world today.

Hitch back up!

Begins apologetically... calls debate "battle of the titans." Does he read me, damnit?

Says he probably wouldn't have been invited had he NOT opposed 1991 invasion.

Says Groundskeeper Willie poses as a pacifist, but in fact supports bin Ladin, Syria, Baathist terrorists.

Notes some of the "pacifist" operations conducted by Groundskeeper Willie's buddy. Says they're not "anti-Imperialist," as they expressly seek a restoration of a lost empire, the Caliphate. Calls GKW repugnant.

Among people killed by these "heroic operations," some of them run out of Syria by GKW's new pal, was Casey Sheehan.

Is it not disgusting to curry favor with Assad, who killed Casey Sheehan, and then come to America and prey upon the emotions of her mother?

Damn, phone call. Briefly, noted that lefties there fancied themselves revolutionaries, plainly evident by the "zoo noises" they make, and mentioned something about them masturbating. Wish I'd not missed that.

Okay, now Galloway again. Makes an issue of Hitchens' branding of the idiotic Lancet "100,000 killed" number as a "crazed fabrication," to which Hitch says "Politicized fabrication." "You said CRAZED," GKW says.

"Both," Hitchens says dryly.

Vile. Justifies terrorism by invoking Battle of Algiers. When asked why they used baby-carriages filled with bombs to kill people in public squares, the Algerian terrorists said "When the french give us some of their helicopters, we'll give them some of our baby carriages."

Makes absurd point that only a leftist would think clever that many American weapons systems are named after Indians or their weapons, the same people we exterminated as we settled this country.

Terrorists are only in Iraq because of America. Al Qaeda only began because of Afghanistan.

Says Hitchens' policy has created "10,000 new bin Ladins." "Sorry about that," Hitchens snarks. "Didn't mean to do it."

I think a better line woudl have been: "10,000 and ONE, George."

Oddly, seems to want an end to propping up dictators... and yet supports Assad & Co.

Hitch up. More snark. Galloway, in an impassioned bit of lefty/Jihadist rhetoric, ended round 2 by saying he wants to appeal "to your head."

"Oh, that was intended to appeal to my cerebellum, was it?" Chris wants to know.

Goes back to GKW's statement that those buildings "just didn't come out of the blue sky" -- there was a provocation. Notes "you picked the wrong city to say that in, and perhaps the wrong month." More zoo noises from the masturbaters.

Seems strange to say the Bush Administration supports Assad, given you just came from his podium. Especially as Bush helped achieve partial regaining of Lebanese independence.

Odd to say of these "al qaeda chaps" that they wouldn't hurt us if only we wouldn't be "so mean to them."

"It's all your fault because you made them mean" is masochism, but it is offered by sadists.

Accuses Galloway of personally meeting with Tariq Aziz to discuss oil-for-food vouchers payoffs.

GKW says it's a complete lie, like the other lies on the leaflets you were handing out "like an idiot."

No one ever discussed oil allocations with me.

"Do you want me to discuss the dictatorships YOU'RE supporting?"

Hitch: "Yes, go ahead."

GKW stumped a bit, but then says Hitch supports Saudi Arabia.

Says that "Real democracy" in Lebanon would result in leader of hezbollah being president, but he can't be, so it's not real democracy.

I'm going to say something that's kinda nasty: The world will not be a lesser place with this man's absence. Read between the lines.

Q: How do you respond to COlin Powell's statement that his UN testimony was a stain on his record?

Hitchens: I don't give a damn. I don't care about what the man says. Never did. He's been the most overrated public figure in America and now he wants to be the most overrated figure in the world.

Q: Did Saddam commit any crimes?

GKW: Yes, but only because he was best friends with Donald Rumsfeld.

Uses word "Goebellian" once again.

I think Hitch might ultimately fucking hit him. I do.

Galloway claims he was "denounced" for demonstrating against Saddam when Saddam had a profitable relationship with Britian.

Hitch responds that he knows the woman in charge of the relevant demonstrating group, and she has no memory of Galloway being there. But take him at his word (nah!) -- then that means that it's all the more disgusting that he met with Tariq Aziz with full knowledge of the Baathists' crimes.

And then, once again, he goes on to saying that Hitchens opposed the 1991 war.

GKW says that sometimes you have to choose between evil and worse evil, and that's what Hitch did in 1991. Says that there's "no difference" between us, except that somewhere along the road to Damascus ("Watch it," hitch snarks) you lost your way.

Says it may have been the lucrative Vanity Fair contracts that caused his 'crazed shifts' of opinion, or the whiskey.

Hitch: So I changed my mind. I guess we have to say you've been 100% consistent in your support of unmentionable thugs and dictators.

Okay, now GKW is just going into leftist cant. Halliburton, Bechtel. Do you think they'll ever leave?

Laughs at calling Al Qaeda in Iraq "foreign fighters." Which part of Iraq is General Myers from? (Funny line, though idiotic.)

Cites Juan Cole. Whoo-hoo!!! Juan Cole has a fan!!!

Hitch: I should like to thank Galloway for expressing what I suspected but feared, to wit, a full expression of support for terrorists in Iraq. (Which is precisely what he did in his last Hitleresque jag.)

Notes that most people in Iraq want democracy, or else they could simply win their "resistance" by VOTING. Says it's very eloquent of Mr. Galloway to suggest that Iraqis' freedom will only be secured when his friends, the terrorists, succeed in stopping all of these elections.

Okay, I think I'm done for now... the idiot questioner is asking about Katrina.

Lots of nonsense... Hitchens scolds the jeerers again, reminding these dipshits they're on "telly." An audible "fuck you" sounds out from the hooting baboons.

Tells those making "zoo noises" that he's on CSPAN and their efforts to drown him out will not work. "They can make me out just fine; all they hear is your baying. Or, should I say, it will take more than that to shut me up, tough-guys."

Ooooh. Frank Fuckin' Rizzo and shit, Chris!

This debate has jumped the shark as Dave said. I'm done.

Wait: One more. Both agree debate has run out of steam. But Galloways says Hitch is right, he's no pacifist, and neither is Hitchens, so perhaps they should end without any further belligerence (suggesting that it might come to blows if they continue).

"Oh don't worry about that," Hitchens coos, threateningly.

Nice.

posted by Ace at 07:32 PM

| Access Comments