The shock

Ever the restless nomad, Mr. BP has been traveling in search of new pastures and nurturing brooding ground. Hence the silence! I'll tell you all about it later. For today though, just a quick note before sharing more at some greater length later.

The Iranian Blogistan has been a lot quicker in grappling with the shock of this election than both the expatriates and naturally, of course, our ever ready- to- spin Honorary-Iranian savior, Mr. Ledeen.

Certainly dear! They simply faked millions of votes and just bused in two million Pakistanis. Probably the very same foreign fighters we have been reading so much about furloughed for a few days to help consolidate the regime in Iran before going back to Iraq via Syria to cause even more mayhem. There is simply no end to his jokes these days.

As for the rest of us, most bloggers--by their own admission-- have been too self absorbed to gauge the mood of the Iranian electorates accurately. The soul searching has been almost universal. And the unflattering insults and angry accusations relentless.

And for me, there have been one and one half (not so minor) surprises.

Initially, I half expected a slightly lower voter turnout. But the moment those first bombs went off, it was obvious we were in trouble. And when Mr. Bush opened his mouth in part due to his administration's preemptive campaign again, I thought the impending misery of our "reformists" clinched for sure. Not a wise move, I thought.

But more importantly, I fully expected the old police Chief Mr. Qalibaf to be where this murderous thug, Ahmadinejad has ended up. I really do loath the fellow. He is a very capable, methodic manager with a can-do spirit. A true believer who is not as self-serving and corrupt as most of our other politicians. And that's what makes him all the more dangerous.

Those with greater access to resources should dig up some of the available info on this man and his track record and especially his tenure in Kurdistan during the post revolutionary civil war there.

Otherwise, the broad outline of what happened this Friday was very predictable. And I stand by my decision to not vote. It was the right thing to do. And I shall not be voting in the runoff either.

More later.