Mahmoud, It's The Economy Stupid

Uranium enrichment doesn't come cheap, and in oil-rich Iran, where Mullahs are too busy praising Allah to take care of lowly ... how do we put this ... Muslims, there's trouble in the streets:

Angered by unpaid salaries and generally low wages, workers in the northern Iranian provincial capital Rasht blocked streets and protested in front of government offices a fortnight ago brandishing banners that read: "We are hungry!"

It wasn't the first time that thousands of employees at the country's largest state-owned textile factory had laid down their tools. But this time they were joined by dam workers in the western province of Elam and employees of a pharmaceutical factory in Tehran.

Recently, workers have also gone on strike against harsh work conditions and impending layoffs in mines and petrochemical plants across the country, with hundreds of coal miners from the northern province of Gilan protesting the fact that they have not been paid for 13 months. Workers were also on strike in the car factories of the Iran-Khodro company, already the site of a massive work stoppage on last year's Day of Social Welfare and Securities (July 16), when strikers demanded the introduction of a minimum wage. (source)

As you recall, Ahmadinejad was elected by these same people. He was the populist candidate, come to clean up corruption and take care of the people.

Power hasn't brought out the best in him.

This story underscores the importance of information warfare and the funding of destabilization efforts in Iran. If Iran crumbles from within before it lashes out, or little problem will be fixed.