comas for the poor!

Juan Cole suggests that the “use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan.”

Let's be fair, however; their motives surely aren't religious. Congress and the pResident are very concerned with making sure that that woman in a persistent vegetative state (Florida?) gets fed. But they are less worried about the hunger of the conscious.

So they’ve cut food stamp funding, though nearly 4 million households in the US go hungry.

The solution is obvious: put the poor into comas, and then our legislators will help them get fed through tubes!

Oh, but then who will pay for the tubes? In Texas, thanks to W, the state can terminate life support against a guardian's will, if they can't pay. And Molly Ivins, citing Digby, notes

Those who passed this bill are the same politicians who want to outlaw medical malpractice suits like the one that provided the care for Terry Schiavo for many years while she was in "a persistent vegetative state." They are the same politicians who have just finished changing bankruptcy law so that it is now much harder for families hit by tragedies like this one to get out from under the staggering medical bills. How dare they talk about morality?