MORE ON THE CULTURE OF LIFE ... Jefferson Morley of the Washington Post reports in his column that Felix Rodriguez, an ex-CIA operative who has strong ties to the Bush administration, is hinting strongly at possible plans by the United States to assassinate Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected and very popular president of Venezuela. Morley includes a remark made by Roger Pardo-Maurer, a State Department official, and quoted in the London-based Financial Times:

"Chavez is a problem because he is clearly using his oil money and influence to introduce his conflictive style into the politics of other countries," Mr Pardo-Maurer said. "He's picking on the countries whose social fabric is the weakest. In some cases it's downright subversion."

Translation: Pres. Chavez hates Bush, has been trying to persuade other Latin American countries to work against Bush's desires for the region, and has been having a lot of success at it.

Sounds like a good reason to snuff out a precious human life to me.