Wampum

Marty Longman's got a post up at BooMan Tribune about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that is worth reading. It is an abbreviated version of what I've been writing for ages in the Return of the ... One True King (new series) and the latter parts of Return of the ... One True King series on the politics inside the Islamic Republic. Here's something I wrote the week after Ahmadi-Nejad's win in the 2nd round of the '05 cycle.

Lines are for lemmings.

I'm trying to find a way to write away the label "hardliner" and its cognates to describe the former mayor of Tehran, the college professor (civil engineering), the appointed (by Ali Larijani), and subsequently elected, governor general of the newly established northwestern province of Ardebil, the post-war Islamic Revolution Guards (IRG) officer, the war-time IRG (Internal Security) officer and civil administrator (West Azarbaijan and Kurdestan provinces), the University student.

In the one week between the election and the run-off election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad messaged on the economy and managed a landslide win over Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. It is important to note that Ahmadinejad had non-economic support, but it is even more important to note that it was the economic voters -- the poor -- urban and rural -- who turned out and are the landslide.

The two themes that really stand out from his inaugral speach are poverty and the needs of the poor, and the need for the nuclear weapons states to reduce the stockpiles of weapons of mass distruction. The themes in the US/EU presses are "hardliner" and "nuclear weapons program".

Former Presidents of the Islamic Republic: Abolhassan Banisadr (non-cleric, impeached), Mohammad-Ali Rajaei (non-cleric, assassinated), Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei (cleric, promoted to Supreme Leader), Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (cleric, two terms) and Mohammad Khatami (cleric, two terms).

Meanwhile, Governor Schwarzenegger (R-CA), Governor Perry (R-TX), both politicans running for re-election in the '08 cycle, are pushing divestiture. It is hard to judge, after one cup of coffee, which theory of right is funnier -- Ahmadi-Nejad's or Bush/Cheney/Schwarzenegger/Perry/... but Lee Bollinger has better reviews, dare I say, National Reviews, in Hawk Politics, or as a Sunday morning Hawk Policy Talking Head, then as the head of a research university.

Corine Lesnes' has an editorial in today's Le Monde which is a somber note from outside of the American Echo Chamber Bush attaquera-t-il l'Iran ?