Trying to follow the national health care debate now coming to a head in Washington is a little like lurching from installment to installment of the “Perils of Pauline.” Will a robust public option survive the attempts to kill or neuter it? Will the final bill contain a key provision to “allow” the states to enact single-payer plans, as proposed by Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders? Well, those crucial options are both on the tracks.

See that guy in black who’s menacing Pauline? He’s a lobbyist. Jane Hamsher describes the scene for us:

I wish everyone could come up to the Hill for one day and see what it’s like right now. The place is crawling with lobbyists, and the entire process is devoted to responding to their immediate pressure. Hundreds of them sitting in the markup meetings, on their cell phones, taking notes, following the Reps out in the hallway, chatting with staffers, with a microfocus on every action of every committee member at every moment. You really don’t get any idea what it’s like from watching the hearings on CSPAN.

But wait, there are more dastardly villains pursuing our poor Pauline. In fact, there’s a Gang of Six! Here’s the latest headline from the Huffington Post: “Gang of Six Centrist Senators Demands Delay on Health Care Reform.” What a monkey wrench that would be! (note to HuffPo: Joe Lieberman a “centrist”?!? Sorry, but your “center” does not hold.) And then there’s Senator Bought-and-Paid-For, aka Max Baucus, head of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, who never met a health-insurance-company donation he didn’t like. I guess why they put him in charge of the Finance Committee–his finances are just fine, thank you. And have I mentioned the woman in black, our own Senator Diane Feinstein, who refused to meet with Jane Hamsher, a California voter who represents the progressive blogosphere on this issue.

My head is spinning. How can we keep up with this ever-changing soap opera? Where does it stand with the provisions that matter most? And most important, what can we do, what ACTIONS can be taken to get our Pauline off the tracks?

Here are the internet sources I’ve found to be most useful, for the latest info, a deeper analysis, and concrete suggestions for action: Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake is leading the progressive charge; McJoan, Slinkerwink, and others at Daily Kos are providing both analysis and action suggestions, Huffington Post gets on the news quickly, and you should get on the OurFutureToday email list at Campaign for America’s Future. Dean Baker (sign up at CEPR) and Paul Krugman have been writing up a storm.

And then there’s this guy, the one with the flying white hair, who battles the men and women in black on a daily basis. Sign up for his updates.