Iranian Democracy dips to a new low: Khamenei and the guards are pressuring the parliament to give the cabinet vote of confidence.

Insinuation suggest that Khamenei has ordered the parliament to give a vote of confidence to Ahmadinejad's proposed cabinet, in order to make his government look strong!

In the past three days, members of parliament have been raising serious criticism of the inadequacy, inexperience and political motivations behind selection of unknown, infamous or incompetent ministers!

Most notorious are the proposed Interior Minister (in picture, a revolutionary guard commander, who should have quit military before nomination for civil duties), the Minister of Science and Education (the campaign manager of Ahmadinejad, with dubious credentials and accused of faking a PhD degree), the ministers of education, health and welfare (whose only qualification seems to be two x-chromosomes; and one with a legal charge over her head).

Of course, these ministers and their president have been busy lobbying the parliament, sending them gift boxes, throwing lavish dinner parties, and allocating construction money to their ridings--a move that has raised the objection of the opposition parties, making them bring these "petty" approaches to attention of the house speaker, Ali Larijani.

Suddenly, however, Ali Larijani's mood has changed. He who has been the arch nemesis of Ahmadinejad since he resigned from the position of nuclear negotiator, and whose brother has just taken over the judiciary, seems to have a heart change! He is no longer acting as fairly or critically as he did in the previous vetting sessions, as expected from his job, and he seems more intent on wise-cracking and joking than moderating the objections raised by different parties.

Although Khamenei has not given any written or oral instructions yet (he is yet not THAT stupid, although I am sure that must be forthcoming!), the nominated ministers have been eager to invoke the "we have the supreme leader's blessing" line; which has raised complaints from parliament members who think dropping supreme leader's name is to mask their inability to express their suitability for the job! One conservative member of the parliament has said unless he hears or sees Khamenei's orders in writing, he is not bound to obey! In response to this gentleman, the nominee has said: "there is no need for written orders, we run on his hints!"

Unfortunately, Larijani seems to have suggested that the wishes of the supreme leader are to give this government a pass ... still three more ministers are to defend: ministers of Oil, Housing and Energy ... But, hopes are dimming and some of the members of the parliament are raising objection that if the final verdict is to come from supreme leader, then why should they be wasting their time on evaluation of the proposed cabinet's portfolio!

"Velayat-e Faghih" is launching a frontal attack on the republic ... we are back to OPEN oligarchy ... If this depresses you, watch the art posts I made before this!

By the way, the OFFICIAL number of dead has now reached 72 ...