Currently atop the Drudge Report is a gigantic ad by “Health Care America,” which states, “In America you wait in line to see a movie. In government-run healthcare systems, you wait to see a doctor”:

The ad is part of the industry-led smear campaign against Michael Moore’s movie SiCKO. The group is “financed in part by pharmaceutical and hospital companies.” Its Advisory Board includes President Bush’s former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. In June, the organization “staged a conference call that drew nearly 20 reporters from around the country,” with the purpose of discussing “what Michael Moore left out of his movie.”

Additionally, the PR firm MultiVu is distributing a “fake news video” smearing SiCKO. The firm receives funding from Health Care America.

These industry-funded organizations attacking Moore argue that the United States has the best health care system in the world. But in reality, the United States is behind in preventing asthma-related deaths, vaccinating children against polio, and providing flu shots to seniors. Americans also, on average, die at a younger age compared to the average age of death of comparable nations. Yet health spending “per capita in the United States is much higher than in other countries — at least 24% higher than in the next highest spending countries, and over 90% higher than in many other countries that we would consider global competitors.”

UPDATE: Michael Moore will be conducting a live chat at Crooks and Liars on Sunday afternoon at 4pm (EST), 1pm (PT).

Digg It!

CQ reports (sub. required):

With some temporary leeway granted by her party’s anti-war activists, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will try this week to chip away at President Bush’s Iraq policy rather than halt the war outright.

Now that a withdrawal deadline like that approved by the House has stalled in the Senate, Democratic leaders have signaled they will likely opt for incremental measures, such as a bill (HR 2929) sponsored by Barbara Lee, D-Calif., that would effectively extend a ban on permanent U.S. bases in Iraq.

That legislation would do little or nothing to force the president’s hand. But it would buy time to build support for another redeployment proposal by Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John P. Murtha, D-Pa., to be offered on the floor as an amendment to the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations bill.

The Plank’s Isaac Chotiner finds this interesting revelation from Stephen Hayes’ Cheney biography. Hayes describes the events as Cheney’s staffers were preparing him for an appearance on Fox News Sunday:

An aide fired one tough question after another at the vice president. Then: Did you agree with President Bush’s decision to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense?

“Absolutely not,” Cheney replied without elaborating. His answer surprised the small group with him, but it was the answer he was determined to give if Wallace asked, even at the risk of angering his boss. But the story was a month old, and Wallace never asked the question.

This issue was getting discussed in comments over here the other day, and now Chris Bowers has an insightful post on the changeover from the 2003-04 primary season when activist bloggers were all endorsing candidates and the 2007-08 season where neutrality rules the day.

I would add, though, that the issue differentiation between Howard Dean on the one hand, and Lieberman/Kerry/Edwards/Gephardt on the other over Iraq was an unusual situation that has no real parallel in the current primary. The candidates are all presenting themselves as wanting to end the war in Iraq and achieve universal health insurance and curb global warming, and essentially arguing over who is best-equipped to instantiate a fundamentally common vision for the country.

This year, “Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before.” The pattern of obstructionism is demolishing previous records:

Nearly 1 in 6 roll-call votes in the Senate this year have been cloture votes. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes — 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office.

McClatchy provides this shocking statistical analysis: