Iran happens to be in the grip of a killer cold spell. At least 60 people have died from the cold. But there is an upside: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in serious political trouble. It seems there isn't enough gas to provide heat for the citizens. People higher up the food chain than Mahmoud are pretty angry about it.
TEHRAN, Iran – President Bush isn't the only leader facing serious economic woes. Icy weather is causing big political trouble for Iran's hard-line president, who is under attack for mismanaging the economy as the country runs perilously low on gas for heat.
More than 60 people have died in the cold, some because of gas shortages in remote and mountainous villages, and even Iran's supreme leader has implicitly rebuked his one-time protege.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was openly humiliated when state radio read a decree by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday ordering him to implement a law approved by Parliament to supply more natural gas to remote villages.
Ahmadinejad had balked — for budgetary reasons — at Parliament's order to spend $1 billion from the country's currency reserve fund to supply the gas.
But Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters under Iran's complicated system, overruled him. That was particularly noteworthy because, although Khamenei has cooled publicly toward the president in recent months, he rarely enters into any outright dispute.
"This was an unprecedented real hit to Ahmadinejad's government," said Tehran political analyst Saeed Laylaz.
It seems that it is awfully cold in some unusual places this year, doesn't it? And brutally cold in places that are usually cold at this time of year.
Yes, but those “awfully cold” places are cold because of Anthropomorphic Global Warming – everything in the weather is the result of Manmade Global Warming, hot, warm, cool, cold, extremely cold, more rain, less rain, floods, droughts and dry spells, more hurricanes, fewer hurricanes.
2008 may well see the end of the creditability of the Church of Anthropomorphic e Global Warming, and its high priest Saint AlGore. He won’t mind; he has made his 100’s of millions out of it. This winter, in both the southern and northern hemispheres, has tested the faith of the true believers in the C of AGW. Many of them will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into reality; some will not make it; lots of them will find another sky they will claim is falling.
BTW, I just finished watching the Canadian TV documentary “Global Warming Doomsday Called Off”, by CBC TV. You can find it at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3309910462407994295
It aired Sunday November 27, 2005 at 7pm EST. The google version last about 44 minutes.
The great Global Warming Swindle is longer and more recent, and is probably more scientific. But I don’t know if you can see it for free any more. If you have not see “Called Off”, it is worth the time.
Thanks for sending that. I really is quite a good documentary.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Mahmoud Ahm – a – doofy – guy was a joke from the beginning – his own people just needed to figure that out.