In your non-whip count-related news today:

• The financial reform bill is really looking like a mess, with carve-outs to big banks and (gasp) payday lenders, and a CFPA that can be overridden. And the Treasury Department’s big idea is a floor fight (actually it’s Jack Reed’s idea, too), because the Senate Banking Committee sits to the right of Congress overall. Someone should mention “60-vote threshold” to them. The banking lobby sure understands that.

• Meanwhile, Treasury definitely doesn’t want a Federal Reserve audit, saying that it would undermine the independence of the central bank. This came out at one of those blogger meetings all the kewl kidz get invites to, and is part of a PR offensive from the Treasury Department that has yielded big pieces in the New Yorker and The Atlantic. Simon Johnson is not impressed.

• Obama held a meeting today with Senators trying to pass an energy and climate bill. You’ll notice I said “Senators” – no House members needed. What’s the point of them passing legislation, exactly?

• MoveOn does some soul-searching on the health care bill, asks its members to decide whether they support or oppose. Should be interesting to see the results.

• Insurance industry trade group bravely comes to the defense of the insurance industry in a new ad.

• Mark Benjamin’s story about torture is a must-read: “Interrogators pumped detainees full of so much water that the CIA turned to a special saline solution to minimize the risk of death, the documents show.”

• Some signs of life on the jobs front. I really hope it’s true and I wasn’t so skeptical. People need jobs.

• If you didn’t know there was a big health care rally in Washington today, you can be excused: no tea bags were involved, so the networks didn’t bother to cover it. Meanwhile I’m sure the media will soon ask “where are the supporters of health reform?” in their next breath.

• I’m scratching my head wondering why Americans United for Change, which claims to support the health care bill, is busy running attack ad against Republicans who will never vote for it, when the bill doesn’t have enough votes from Democrats to pass. Seems like a waste of money.

• Lindsey Graham has joined the chorus objecting to Liz Cheney’s McCarthyite smear attack on DoJ lawyers who defended terrorism suspects pro bono in the past. Can official Congressional condemnation be far behind? Short answer: yes. Liz Cheney is not MoveOn, after all.

• No matter your position on the health care bill, I think everyone would admit that the prospect of getting Limbaugh out of the country if it passes is tempting. And he slips by saying he would move to Costa Rica, which has a socialized medical system and quality of health care at a higher level than the United States, according to the WHO.

• Republicans are not a slam-dunk to take back the House because they don’t have the money or the organization to pull it off. Case in point: blowing the recruitment in a top-tier race in Arkansas.

• We’re going to be calling it Detroit Farms in the future. Could be a fascinating experiment in the transformation of an urban core.

• Same-sex marriage officially begins in Washington, DC.

• Beijing’s still buying our debt.

• I don’t know, 2,000 Presidential appointees actually sounds like enough to me, but Congress actually performing their duties instead of miring themselves in gridlock would help. Executive staff has grown because so much of the business of government has to be borne by the executive, or else nothing gets done.

• A lobbyist for the theocratic Traditional Values Coalition helpfully offered to turn gay Republican Roy Ashburn straight. He’d do it free of charge, too, because otherwise it would be an in-kind donation.