DISORGANIZING FOR AMERICA:

A rare bit of friction between Dems and Obama’s political operation, Organizing for America:

Aides to Senator Dianne Feinstein have complained to the White House about a deluge of visits to her offices by constituents who thought they had an appointment after OFA called on supporters to visit members of Congress, Feinstein’s office confirms to me.

OFA recently blasted out an email to its list asking supporters to “visit” the office of their representatives. OFA asked supporters to sign up in shifts to avoid overwhelming the offices, whereupon supporters received follow-up emails reminding them of the “scheduled visit” they’d chosen. OFA advised them to “call ahead” before visiting.

But some constituents took the follow-up email to mean that they had a hard-and-fast scheduled meeting with their members of Congress, and around 100 such people showed up at Feinstein’s offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Feinstein spokesperson Gil Duran says. The visitors got upset when they learned they didn’t have a scheduled meeting, Duran says, adding that Feinstein’s office “expressed their concerns” to the White House.

Glad they’re not in charge of my doctor appointments. Yet, anyway . . . .

GO FIGURE: New Gallup poll shows town hall protests winning over independents? “Either indies have suddenly developed a taste for Nazi mobs of political terrorists or the Democrats’ message war on ObamaCare opponents is a rather epic fail. . . . The more people hear about Congress rushing the bill through without having read it, the more satisfaction they’ll naturally take from Joe Public standing up to get in Arlen Specter’s face.”

SWEEPSTAKES: Win a Tom Douglas Grilling Prize Package.

CAMILLE PAGLIA CRITICIZES OBAMA’S HEALTHCARE PLAN AND — despite the “I still support him” preface — gets labeled a “cuntzilla” by an angry lefty. Thou shalt not criticize The One!

UPDATE: Charles Austin emails:

For fun I clicked through to read some of the other letters by the deranged lefty who insulted Camille Paglia and found this:

Whenever you set out to denigrate someone, all you end up doing is denigrating yourself. I highly doubt a lot of you can afford any more unattractive qualities so take heed.

Who said irony is dead? But seriously, this person needs some serious help.

And I suspect he/she is not alone.

UPDATE: Reader David Brown writes: “When I read her column, which listed many of the outrageous actions of Obama’s crew, and then the part about how she still ‘loved’ Obama, all I could think of the ‘battered wife syndrome’.” She’ll find the courage to leave him eventually.

CHANGE:

The federal deficit climbed higher into record territory in July, hitting $1.27 trillion with two months remaining in the budget year.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the July deficit totaled $180.7 billion, slightly more than the $177.5 billion economists had expected.

The Obama administration is projecting that when the current budget year ends on Sept. 30, the imbalance will total $1.84 trillion, more than four times last year’s record-high.

The soaring deficits have raised worries among foreign owners of U.S. Treasury securities including the Chinese, the largest holder of such debt.

I can’t imagine why.

FARMERS VS. “AGRI-INTELLECTUALS:” “Much of his argument comes down to: beware the law of unintended agricultural consequences. Farming without herbicides means more tilling and more erosion. Let turkeys roam outside and they’re prone to attack by weasels, or drowning by their own upturned beaks in downpours. Freeing massive hogs from confinement crates means they sometimes crush their piglets to death, or eat them right after they’re born.”

ILYA SOMIN: A small positive effect of Trotskyism.

HOW TO cure diseases before they have even evolved.

THE WHOLE FOODS ALTERNATIVE to ObamaCare. “While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone.”

MICHAEL BARONE: Michigan Madness. “Let the last Michiganian who leaves turn out the lights.”

PROGRESS: Shape-Shifting Gel Condom Changes From Liquid to Solid To Block HIV. “Though the University of Utah in Salt Lake City might not be the first place one would expect to find researchers getting experimental in the bedroom, a team of scientists there have developed a new gel that can quickly shift from liquid to solid, for use in a vaginal condom that more easily protects against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.”

A RETRO MUSIC PLAYLIST FROM THOMAS PYNCHON. Plus, a video trailer for Inherent Vice that’s narrated by Pynchon.

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE includes batteries?

BOINGBOING TV: Xeni Jardin talks with Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh.

THE HILL: Dingell letter to town hall protester: ‘I understand your concern’.

PJTV: Michael Yon Reports from the Battlefield in Afghanistan. Via satphone. He’ll be sending video soon, I believe.

ESQUIRE: The Art of The Dodge: How To Field Questions Like The President. “Who do you think I am, John Kerry? What else you got?”

MORE ON THAT Congressional Per-Diem Scandal. “No wonder Arlen Specter griped about not getting a bonus for meeting with his constituents. He could have been jet-setting to the Caymans on a fact-finding mission on financial markets, while generating a good chunk of per diem cash to stuff into a bank there. Instead, he had to fly first class back to Pennsylvania to have his constituents yell at him while not getting a couple of thou in cash.”

NANOWIRES that behave like cells.

POLITICO: “Democrats have a senior citizen problem.” “Frustrated older Americans are packing the town halls on health care. They are incredibly passionate about their Medicare benefits. Polls show senior citizens largely disapprove of health care reform ideas so far. . . . But so far, Democrats have focused much of their health care sales pitch on middle-class Americans and the uninsured — a slight that has been noticed by senior citizens, who hold great influence with members of Congress. . . . Critics say the proposed $380 billion Medicare cuts in the House bill — including cuts to the privately administered Medicare Advantage program — will lead to long waits for care, doctors dropping patients and doctors deciding if their older patients ‘are worth the cost,’ as one TV and Web ad from the 60 Plus Association warned.” Remember Dan Rostenkowski!

PHOTOS: Asteroid impacts on earth, seen from space.

USA TODAY’S fact-checking of Obama’s town-hall assertions is discussed by Ed Morrissey. And here’s more fact-checking from Heritage. I love this bit from Ed on the generally-credulous media treatments: “The media had a field day with this yesterday, using Isakson as a bat with which beat conservative critics, but it never occurred to the layers of fact-checkers and editors that a Senator would have had nothing to do with a clause in a House bill. In fact, Isakson does support making end-of-life planning available, but doesn’t support the mandate for it that exists in Section 1233 of the House bill.” Senate, House, whatever. If the distinction were important, it would have been in the talking points.

DO IT YOURSELF: How to patch and repair drywall.

IN THE MAIL: From Danni Kollin and Eytan Kollin, The Unincorporated Man. With strong blurbs by the likes of Greg Benford.

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Drug Chief at the FDA Is Accused Of Conflict. “The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services is investigating a conflict-of-interest allegation involving the official in charge of drug approvals at the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA said.”

Well, there’s an easy solution to that — just fire the Inspector General! (Via NewsAlert).