How are you liking your screwing so far?

More info has come out on the Medicare ads we're buying so we can convince ourselves that we're lucky to be getting screwed.

From the Progress Report (and there's more at that link, if you can take it):

Just one day after the controversial taxpayer-funded political ads touting the President's Medicare bill hit the airwaves, AP reports that the White House gave the $9 million ad contract to National Media, Inc., the Bush-Cheney campaign's media firm . And if that is not shocking enough, the same company that is doing government-funded ads for HHS is also the primary media firm for the drug industry. Specifically, National Media has done the ads for the drug industry front group "Citizens for Better Medicare" – an organization that has spent tens of millions of dollars on ads attacking lawmakers who have fought to lower prescription drug prices. Last year alone, National Media, Inc. raked in more than $8 million from the drug industry to produce ads eviscerating those who had the courage to fight for lower drug prices. The President and his allies in Congress have raked in more than $25 million directly from drug companies and have appointed drug industry lobbyists/executives to key government offices which make health care policy (Eli Lilly's Mitch Daniels was Budget Director, drug industry-attorney Daniel Troy is chief counsel at FDA, and PhRMA VP Ann-Marie Lynch is now a top HHS official). And the new revelations that the White House is siphoning Medicare funds into a media firm directly connected to both the drug industry and the President's personal re-election race is sure to intensify those questions.

The White House's selection of National Media, Inc. was no coincidence: it is well-connected to the drug industry, as well as the Enron/Wal-Mart funded political action committee of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay . But its experience with "Citizens for Better Medicare" is where it got the experience in health care advertising the White House was looking for. "Citizens for Better Medicare" is considered the most powerful drug front group in the country.

Brass balls. No shame.