Sunday Morning Blog Roundup

Per Andrew Card, the Republicans aren't going to sell a new product in August, they're going to do it in October.

In this case, the product is a pullout from Iraq, and Jazz Shaw notes that the withdrawal plan favored by Congressional Republicans calls for the pullout to begin in October 2006 -- just a month before the midterm elections, so that they can use the Iraq pullout to bolster their campaigns.

Meanwhile, another thousand kids will lose their lives keeping this clusterfuck going so that a bunch of politicos can hang onto their seats.

The party of morality indeed.

And paying a visit to Outer Wingnuttia, Joe Gandelman has some musings about the reasons behind Jeb Bush's witchhunt against Michael Schiavo:

A thirst for knowing what really happened. No political motive. Tying up loose ends. (By the way: it is a fact that "Gandelman" is an Italian name..)

CYA. Nothing else panned out to support the case against Schiavo's husband and in terms of political polls and due to the autospsy report Frist, the two Bush brothers, Tom DeLay and Randall Terry and company came out of it with a troubling odor.There is a need to get something on Michael Schiavo ASAP.

A further attempt to show social conservatives that Jeb Bush is on their side and will leave no stone unturned to look into this case.

A sign that JB plans to run for President after all in 2008 or, at the very least, is laying the groundwork to cement his bond with religious right voters and run in 2012.

Political revenge. The Bush brothers and GOPers in Congress who clamored for the tube to be connected in this case have taken a hit in terms of poll numbers and credibility. This is looking for "payback" — any kind of payback.

My money's on the 4th and 5th reasons.

And just as a reminder: Michael Schiavo LIVED with the Schindlers for a few years after his wife's collapse, and the rift occurred after he was awarded money in two forms in a malpractice suit -- some for her care, and more for "loss of society, services and consortium", which is a common award in spousal disability cases. Whether the Schindlers like it or not, I don't think there's anything in law that compensates parents for the loss of their child's companionship, and if there is, then their attorney should have filed a lawsuit against Terri's doctors on their behalf at the time.

Now that we've covered death, let's move on to sex. John Aravosis cites a piece from ThinkProgress which indicates that just like John Ashcroft before him, Alberto Gonzales, having lost some of the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, has decided to keep Americans safe from terror by -- you guessed it -- going after porn.

And all this after the president himself partied down with Mary Carey last week. But hey -- let's all say it together -- "It's OK If You're A Republican."

So presumably only those not registered as Republicans will be targeted.

And that's your morning blog roundup, folks! I'm off for a week in lovely Pennsylvania to delve into the arcana of Authorware. If my aging Dell Latitude works, I'll be blogging from there.