THE MILK-CARTON CAMPAIGN SEEMS TO BE DRAWING THEM OUT: Carol Shea Porter to hold town meetings next Saturday.

Plus, John Tanner to appear at public meeting. “U.S. Rep. John Tanner will appear at an event in his hometown of Union City protesting his refusal to not hold a town hall forum.”

UPDATE: Reader Rachel Kowalick writes:

I actually emailed my district Congressman Jason Altmire (D-PA) to ask if he’d schedule a town hall.

Yesterday I received an email invitation from him to attend on August 24. The interesting thing about it is the venue. He will be meeting with people in Farrell, PA. If you look at a map of the 4th district (Altmire’s) and look for Farrell, you will see that he seems to have carefully chosen the farthest edge of his district for the meeting. He picked a very small town at the very top edge of the district – a choice which will (intentionally, I’m sure) put him as far away from the majority of his constituents he can get.

We’ve had many appearances by other politicians here in the center of his district, including Obama himself… but Altmire wants to hide on the fringe.

As a consolation, he’ll also be offering a “telephone town hall” the following week. The emails states it will last for one hour, and you must call ahead to be included.

Talk about making yourself accessible to your voters!

And if people from outside his district show up — even if they live nearby — he’ll call them astroturfers!