We'll Always Have Paris

"Pull-news is what people seek out. If you read a national newspaper or small-circulation magazines; if you've found non-MSM radio and television programming that values importance over sensation; if you seek out online news aggregators whose priorities you find nutritious; if you bookmark blogs whose hyperlinks take you off the beaten path -- if you've become your own meta-editor and meta-publisher, then you're among the minority who have filled the responsibility-vacuum abdicated by push-news.

"This week, the Iraqi parliament 'passed a binding resolution that will guarantee lawmakers an opportunity to block the extension of the U.N. mandate under which coalition troops now remain in Iraq when it comes up for renewal in December.' But if you didn't read that in an exclusive alternet.org story by Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland, or if you didn't get an email from a friend (as I did) saying, Didja see this?, you might not know that a majority of Iraqi lawmakers has now fashioned a two-by-four to thump President Bush on the head and end our occupation. But no doubt you would know about the girl locked in a tiny room in Connecticut."

The Iraq vote does kinda sorta seem like news, doesn't it?

In non-Paris news, Time's Joe Klein has had it with liberal bloggers, and uses his column to vent:

"A strange thing happened to me the day the House of Representatives voted to pass the Iraq-war-funding bill. Congresswoman Jane Harman of California called as the debate was taking place. 'Look, I would love to have cast a vote against Bush on this,' she told me. 'We need a new strategy, and I hope we can force one in September. But I flew into Baghdad [with 150 young soldiers recently]. To vote against this bill was to vote against giving them the equipment . . . they need. I couldn't do that.' I posted what Harman said on Swampland, the political blog at Time.com, along with my opinion that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had changed their positions and voted against the funding for the worst possible reason: presidential politics.

"And then Harman changed her position. After we spoke, she voted against the funding. The next day, I was blasted by a number of left-wing bloggers: Klein screwed up! I had quoted Harman in the past tense--common usage for politicians who know their words will appear after a vote takes place. That was sloppy and . . . suspicious! Proof that you just can't trust the mainstream media. On Eschaton, a blog that specializes in media bashing, I was given the coveted 'Wanker of the Day' award. Eventually, Harman got wind of this and called, unbidden, to apologize for misleading me, saying I had quoted her correctly but she had changed her mind to reflect the sentiments of her constituents. I published her statement and still got hammered by bloggers and Swampland commenters for 'stalking' Harman into an apology, for not checking her vote in the Congressional Record, for being a 'water boy for the right wing' and many other riffs unfit to print.

"This is not the first time this kind of free-range lunacy has been visited upon me . . .

"The smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed--especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable."

As you might have guessed, some liberal bloggers are not pleased. Here's Shakesville:

"Do I hear the lush arpeggio of the crying violins? Are those the dulcet tones of the waahmbulance? Could it be that Joe Klein got his feelings hurt by the meanie leftie bloggers?

"He's kidding, right? "Fury begets fury"? He's never read Little Green Footballs, Free Republic, or Michelle Malkin, and Ann Coulter is just a little over expressive, huh? Has he read the accusations of treason that come tumbling out whenever someone dares to contradict their Dear Leader? Those nutballs play for keeps, Joe. We may be snarky, but they're dangerous. Given the experiences of a number of leftie bloggers who have been stalked, verbally attacked, threatened with physical harm, had their personal information posted on the web, had their livelihood put in jeopardy and, in one case I'm intimately familiar with, forced off a server because of a DNS storm; being called a wanker by Atrios doesn't really cut it as far as being furious is concerned -- unless, of course, you really are a wanker."

Kagro X at Kos says Klein is being introduced to reality: