In a holding pattern on a few stories, so why not skip directly to the links:

• This was an amusing moment on CNBC last night, as CA Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is suing State Street Bank for $200 million in fraud, called out the sycophants on that network and at one point refused to be interviewed – during the interviewed. The Brown camp was so pleased with the outcome that they blasted it out to their email list. Brown is running for Governor, so hitting the stuffed shirts on Wall Street, and their cheerleaders, isn’t a bad idea.

• A little-known shift in the language on the Baucus health care bill from the Senate Finance Committee would base coverage subsidies on modified gross income instead of adjusted gross income, basically reducing the credit for most families and put the credit out of reach for some families that otherwise would have received them by putting others over the 400% federal poverty level and eliminating their subsidies. A dirty trick, to be sure, and an example of how these bills must be watched closely.

• As another poll shows little support for the excise tax on high-end health insurance plans, Marcy Wheeler takes Ezra Klein to task over it. I just wish excise tax supporters weren’t working both sides of the coin without acknowledging political reality.

• Congress said no to new funding for that border fence with Mexico, a waste of money and an ecological disaster in the making. Hopefully this can be the end of putting up walls as an inadequate and irrelevant “solution” to problems.

• Fighting back against the letter from 72 Democrats warning against FCC rulemaking on net neutrality, Congressmembers Ed Markey and Anna Eshoo have released their own letter of support, and pro-net neutrality group Save The Internet has produced 20,000 signatures on a letter of support for the FCC’s plans. You can add your support here.

• Rasmussen polls that Charlie Crist/Marco Rubio “battle for the soul of the GOP” race in Florida, and finds the same tightening in the numbers.

• Democratic activists in Virginia are talking about writing in “public option” for Governor rather than Creigh Deeds, as the fallout over his remark that he would consider an opt-out for the state continues.

• Ugh, I think I’ve found a worse campaign than Deeds’ – Dede Scozzafava. Her press conference today turned into a campaign event for her Conservative Party opponent Doug Hoffman.

• The President announced a new initiative to lend to small businesses today. Shouldn’t these come at the expense of all those special lending operations for the biggest banks in America?

• John Kerry has rehabilitated his image in Washington with his diplomacy resulting in getting Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff election in Afghanistan. But I’d wait until the outcome of that runoff before showering him with praise.

• Alan Grayson has created a site honoring the 45,000 Americans who die every year from lack of health insurance. But NamesOfTheDead.com needs to work out a few kinks yet.

• Speaking of Mike Stark, this exchange with Andrew Breitbart was a hoot. Advantage Stark (Dave Weigel has more on this, and I urge you to read that link; Breitbart is clearly scamming people). Plus, Stark’s questioning of David Vitter (R-LA) on that judge who refused to marry an interracial couple yielded a really poor response. Stark is putting together a new kind of activism.

• And I’m sure TBogg will have something pithier to say about this, but if there were such a thing as an Pundit Police Department, Slate would have their website revoked for publishing this article: “Creed is totally underrated.” I mean I want to sue for damages for that.

…I forgot my nightly Silvio Berlusconi story. He really doesn’t like his job, he tells CNN (that’s why he’s run for PM five times). Also, he’s never made a gaffe.