Writers who can dish it out.

Most writers, when they write in anger, degrade into ranting and bluster. A precious few, like these two, become brilliant when aroused. Both these links come via The Corner. Enjoy...

George Will is unimpressed by the sudden realization in America that there are poor people among us. I'm with George on this. I've seen dead people on America's streets, and it was not in the aftermath of a great hurricane. Pay attention to what happens everyday in cities like New York, Washington, or any major city. Imagine the shocking scenes if Washington D.C. was ever to flood. If Congress wants to be embarrassed by scenes of poverty, they need only drive a few miles from the Capitol.

On the subject of Congressional embarrassment, here's Will:

The idea that Hurricane Katrina would change the only thing that matters - thinking - perished even more quickly, at about the time Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a suitable symbol of congressional narcissism, dramatized the severity of the tragedy by taking a television interviewer on a helicopter flight over her destroyed beach house. "Washington rolled the dice and Louisiana lost," she said in a speech on the Senate floor that moved some senators to tears. You can no more embarrass a senator than you can a sofa, so the tears were not accompanied by blushing about having just passed a transportation bill whose 6,371 pork projects cost $24 billion, about 10 times more than the price of the levee New Orleans needed.

I haven't had much exposure to George Galloway, but what little I have seen leads me to dislike him quite a bit. I've noticed that many smart people seem to dislike the man quite a bit. Christopher Hitchens, who seems to be very familiar with Galloway, dislikes him in a breathtakingly vigorous way that I cannot excerpt without losing the effect. Pop over to Slate and take it all in.

BTW: The article's intent is to announce that Hitchens will debate Galloway tomorrow in New York. The event will be broadcast on radio, which I believe those of us in other locations can hear over the internet. You won't want to miss this one!