Any way to separate the email sent from the post made?

Issue Summary

As a test I tried commenting out:

[code] if($newsletter['body']) { // Don't send anything unless there are new nodes
$node->body = $newsletter['body'];
$node->uid = 1;
$node->title = $term->name;
$node->type = 'simplenews';
$node->teaser = node_teaser($node->body);
$node->filter = variable_get('filter_default_format', 1);
$node->status = 1;
$node->revision = 1;
$node->promote = 0;
$node->comment = 0;
$node->created = time();
$node->changed = time();
$node->taxonomy = $newsletter_tid;
$node->send = 1;
$node->s_format = variable_get('simplenews_digest_format', 'html');
$node->priority = 0;
$node->receipt = 0;
node_save($node);
}[/code]

Thinking since it said node_save it would not post the node, but still send the email with the new links. Instead is didn't do either, so apparently they are tied together somehow. Any way to separate the two?