We first found this on The Awl. It’s a photo of what’s described on the blog I ought to be working as a pile of manure left in the entrance of a Chase Manhattan bank ATM at 10th street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, with this explanation:

The blog EV Grieve, however, clarified that the pile was actually dirt, and a comment there directed us to the Reverend Billy, an activist/performance artist famous for his stunts targeting American corporations. Here is the Reverend and his choir doing their thing at Chase:

More on that protest from the Reverend Billy site. And the Rainforest Action Network has a page called JPMorgan Chase, Banking on Dirty Energy, which claims “JP Morgan Chase is the largest US bank financing mountaintop removal coal mining, which literally involves blowing the tops off historic Appalachian Mountains and poisoning drinking water to extract a relatively small amount of dirty coal.”

In the interest of providing equal time, here’s JPMorgan Chase’s 2008 Corporate Responsibility Update. But let’s face it, without the singing and dancing, it’s a tough slog…

What did newspaper front pages look like the day after health care reform passed?

Someone collected screen shots of over 200 of them and put them on the Web. Click to see a pretty amazing collection.

…at least one New York Times headline. The blog Line By Line is a “daily graphic capture of New York Times headlines.” Here are three of the entries with their accompanying source material.

For Consumers, Clarity on Health Care Changes

Stores Land in Gun-Control Crossfire

Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power

More here.

Our friend the Evil HR Lady answers a question from a worker who was written up for doodling during a meeting.

Question from user:

I am in a bind. I don’t really know what to do. Previously, the HR lady in my fairly small office was nice to me, always smiling at me and saying hi, for about two years. Then, I got written up because we had this super boring mandatory 8 hour staff meeting and I was doodling on some papers that were passed out during it, which I wasn’t doing maliciously so much as I was in an effort to stay awake during the 8 hours of sitting still in a hot room hearing about H1N1 and other mind-numbingly boring subjects.

In addition to this, one of my co-workers, who, during his time at my work, became one of my best friends, was fired for a really flimsy reason (official reason listed was that he fell asleep in a meeting, but i was sitting beside him in said meeting and he absolutely did nothing of the sort) and after his dismissal, I was very upset and distraught, and I shared these feelings with my supervisor, who I am sure shared my concerns with HR. Now, aforementioned HR lady won’t even look at me, no longer greets me, and if I have to interact with her at all she is uncomfortably cold to me and as minimally helpful as she can be. I want to bring this concern about her conduct with me to my supervisor, but then who does it go to? Back to her, so that she can deny it and make me feel even more uncomfortable? I feel trapped. If it was anyone else in my office, I know who I would turn to, but who do I talk to when it is the HR lady that is making my work-life hell? What do I do?

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There are death panels, communist takeovers, and the end of liberty as we know it, and then there are more rational criticisms of the health care bill. Greg Mankiw, former chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, offers this post:

Healthcare, Trade Offs, and the Road Ahead

One thing I have been struck by in watching this debate is how strident it has been, among both proponents and opponents of the legislation. As a weak-willed eclectic, I can see arguments on both sides. Life is full of tradeoffs, and so most issues strike me as involving shades of grey rather than being black and white. As a result, I find it hard to envision the people I disagree with as demons.

Arthur Okun said the big tradeoff in economics is between equality and efficiency. The health reform bill offers more equality (expanded insurance, more redistribution) and less efficiency (higher marginal tax rates). Whether you think this is a good or bad choice to make, it should not be hard to see the other point of view.

I like to think of the big tradeoff as being between community and liberty. From this perspective, the health reform bill offers more community (all Americans get health insurance, regulated by a centralized authority) and less liberty (insurance mandates, higher taxes). Once again, regardless of whether you are more communitarian or libertarian, a reasonable person should be able to understand the opposite vantagepoint.

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See, the health care bill is already paying dividends…for the person who thought this up. Wonder if they had one ready in the event the bill didn’t pass.

Former Bush speechwriter and Republican thinker David Frum has posted an article on his site that is making the Web rounds. It argues that Republicans have made a huge tactical error in refusing to negotiate with Democrats on the health care bill.

Waterloo

by David Frum

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.

So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

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…to one photo.

From the blog of economist Greg Mankiw: Economics in One Picture.

A lot of people are engaging in online debates and conversations about the health care bill today. and it’s especially interesting to observe the muted, if any, celebration of liberals and other engaged Democrats about their party’s success in pushing through the legislation, overcoming what many political handicappers pegged as extremely long odds.

Their disappointment rests in part in the legislation’s exclusion of two cherished goals: Advocates of a single-payer system (government health care for all) found early on that there was no place in the building for them, let alone at the table, and hopes for at least a “public option” — a government-run insurance program that would compete with private insurers — died at the hands of Senate centrists.

So here’s one post from the blog My Left Wing and another more temperate statement from Firedoglake that are good representations of progressives’ ambivalence.

My Left Wing: Kill the Bill? F***That.

by Maryscott O’Connor

Reading the comment threads at FireDogLake, I feel like I’ve walked through the looking glass. Loathsome as this is, somehow I just don’t think committing political suicide is going to move this country in any direction but further toward where the scum on the right want to go. I loathe this sell-out; but I also know when to concede defeat to the conservative Democratic forces that have completely outmaneuvered me and live with pragmatic consensus rather than join hands with those who would, the next available moment, turn around and stab me and mine through the heart.

Let me speak now to those who would rather see this bill DIE than pass because it’s so godawful:

Yeah, it’s a corporate fire sale. Lesser of two evils is still evil. Same as it ever was. But, thing is, incrementalism is the name of the game in politics, boys — when was it ever not?

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In January, after Massachussetts sent Republican Scott Brown to the Senate, destroying the Democratic supermajority needed to pass the health care overhaul without resorting to the reconciliation process, the plan appeared all but dead.

Now, some view the bill’s success as comparable to the Resurrection, while others liken it more to the return of Jason in Friday the 13th</em. On January 20, after the Massachussetts meltdown by Democrats, we wrote this post about the differing reactions on the sites Blue Mass Group (place for Dems) and Red Mass Group (GOP hangout). Revisiting those sites in light of the turned tables, we see not a lot of hoopla on the left, reflecting liberals’ mixed feelings about the bill, and anger, defiance, and despair on the right.

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