Noted.

HELP FOR HEALTHCARE HEROES: House progressives are getting some extra help in their fight against attempts by the GOP and Blue Dog Democrats to remove the public option from the healthcare bill. Net activists at Blue America PAC, with support from bloggers, are collecting donations online for members of Congress who vow to vote against any healthcare bill that does not contain a strong public option. So far they've raised more than $400,000. The money will go to sixty-five members of the House, including prominent progressives like Dennis Kucinich and Barney Frank and freshman members like Judy Chu (California) and Chellie Pingree (Maine).

"Supporters of real reform are being heard, not with thousand-dollar-an-hour lobbyists but with a lot of $10 contributions. It's great to see," says New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, one of the "Health Care Heroes." According to Jane Hamsher of the blog Firedoglake, one of the campaign's organizers, the money raised is in the same league as donations from the largest insurance companies. Hamsher says, "We've got sixty-five members who have pledged to vote against any bill that does not contain a public plan.... Our task right now is twofold: can we increase their number, and can we hold them?"   SARAH JAFFE

TORTURE AT THE TOP: Attorney General Eric Holder was, by all accounts, horrified when he learned the extent of abuses committed by CIA operatives without the informed consent of Congress or legal legitimacy. So, despite a last-minute objection by the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Missouri Senator Kit Bond, Holder has assigned a prosecutor to determine if a full-scale investigation of torture tactics used during the Bush years is warranted.

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