8/6: 80% Of Success Is Showing Up...

Liberal bloggers are employing a dual strategy to counteract the conservative campaign to heckle Dem lawmakers at townhalls over their support of health care reform. On the one hand, lefty bloggers are accusing these right-wing activists of being "sponsored by the healthcare industry and Republican party" and decrying their "intimidation tactics." On the other hand, lefty bloggers are urging progressives to start attending these townhalls themselves, since they don't want opponents of health care reform to dominate the events. Joan McCarter begs Daily Kos readers:

"If you want this, show up and let your representatives -- and the traditional media -- know it. Show them that the majority of people in this country want real reform and want it now. Don't let the screamers change the subject. Don't let them shut down democracy."

Meanwhile, conservative bloggers are accusing Dems of being hypocrites now that the DNC is simultaneously criticizing the conservative protesters and encouraging Pres. Obama's own supporters to start showing up at these events. Michelle Malkin writes sarcastically: "Hey, no top-down direction here in President Obama's latest mass e-mailing to his minions."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (Bowers, Sudbay, McCarter) are annoyed that Obama reportedly encouraged Dem senators to continue reaching out to GOP senators and told them that he wished "left-wing groups" would stop running ads against Dems.
• Conservative bloggers (York, Erickson, Hinderaker) are still complaining about a post on the WH blog which included the following sentence: "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov." Meanwhile, righty bloggers (Malkin, Erickson, Goldfarb) were pleased when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) echoed their complaints about the WH blog post, although liberal bloggers are accusing Cornyn of hypocrisy.
• Conservative bloggers (Wehner, Geraghty) are promoting a recent Washington Post article which implies that VA voters are growing disillusioned with Obama. Liberal bloggers (Foser, Chait, Fernholz) are blasting the article.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: You Gotta Fight Fire With Fire

Some liberal bloggers are urging their readers to start showing up to Dem townhall events in order to counteract the conservative protesters:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "So we know that the screamers and right-wing performance artists are part of a larger astroturf effort. They don't represent a significant segment of the actual voting population in the country. But you know what, that doesn't make a damned bit of difference if they're the only ones showing up. [...] We absolutely have to show up. Because it works, as The Crusader shows in this diary today, and Don Briggs demonstrated in his Monday diary. [...] If you want this, show up and let your representatives -- and the traditional media -- know it. Show them that the majority of people in this country want real reform and want it now. Don't let the screamers change the subject. Don't let them shut down democracy."
• Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "[MD Rep.] Frank Kratovil was hung in effigy. [CT Sen.] Chris Dodd was told to go kill himself. [VA Rep.] Gerry Connolly says that one Freshman was assaulted, and Brad Miller got death threats. [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi is showing up to support [CO Reps.] Diane DeGette and Jared Polis at an event in Denver tomorrow, and the Malkinites are going to be out in force. If you're in Denver, please show up and support Democrats against the thuggery of the insurance industry-funded GOP astroturfers."

In a separate post, Hamsher provides a list of August health care events: "Listed below are the health care events for Democratic members of Congress. If you know of an event and you don't see it listed, let us know here. If you want to go to any event, you can sign up to join a group (if there is one) or create a group. You can also search to see if there is group near you planning on going to an event by searching here. You can communicate with others at the event by using the hashtag #FDL combined with a hashtag of the member's last name and state. We will contact people by mail to arrange meetup times in advance of the event. You can find a list of best practices here. Please take flip cameras and photographs. Tell us what happened and upload videos and photos after the event here."

HEALTH CARE REFORM II: Who's Astroturfing Now, Dems?

Conservative bloggers are arguing that Dems are hypocrites for accusing the townhall protesters of being "astroturfers," since Organizing for America is now urging its members to attend these events:

• NRO's Yuval Levin: "The White House has taken to accusing Republicans of organizing or manufacturing the outrage about Obamacare at town halls with members of congress in recent days. But from the looks of this DNC website, Republicans aren't the ones doing the manufacturing."
• AmSpec Blog's Philip Klein: "At the same time that the DNC and his own White House are trying to argue that people voicing their concerns about health care legislation to their elected representatives are 'manufactured,' President Obama just sent out an email to members of his Organizing for America operation to 'commit now to taking at least one action in your community this month to build support for health insurance reform...'"
• Malkin: "Hey, no top-down direction here in President Obama's latest mass e-mailing to his minions. Only thing missing is advice on how to dress like 'real' grass-roots activists and instructions on how to snitch on friends and neighbors saying 'fishy' things about socialized medicine. Astroturf powers, unite!"

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Wal-Mart Takes On The Girl Scouts

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg:

"Apparently, Walmart wasn't satisfied with being the top media-manipulating, union-busting, soul-sucking, Nazi cake-decorating crappy-Chinese-products selling store in America. Now it's preying on Girl Scouts. Walmart has copied two of the group's signature cookies, Thin Mints and Tagalongs, and will soon sell them nationally at lower prices -- sure to cut into the do-gooders' profits, which are generated solely from cookie sales."

LEST WE FORGET: How To Get Out Of Work

From Overheard in the Office:

50-year old guy #1: I don't want to be here.
50-year old guy #2, passing by: Just shit your pants. Nobody likes working with you if you have shitty pants.