Highlighting a common touch that has become a trademark of his presidency, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said he keeps his finger on Iran's economic pulse by talking to his butcher, newspapers reported on Saturday.

"We have hardworking shopkeepers in our neighbourhood from whom I get important economic information because they are living among the people," Ahmadinejad, the son of a blacksmith, was quoted by Iran's Sharq daily as saying.

"For example, there is an honourable butcher in our neighbourhood who is aware of all the problems of the people and I also get important economic information from him," he said in a meeting with worker unions, Sharq reported.

Another daily also carried the comments.

It is not the first time Ahmadinejad has pointed to his local shopkeepers when addressing Iranian economic issues.

Facing complaints about inflation, he told parliament in a budget speech in January that Iranians should pop around to his neighbourhood grocer to buy tomatoes where he said they were much cheaper than the soaring prices he said others were citing.

Ahmadinejad swept to power in 2005 with a down-to-earth campaign vowing to share out Iran's oil wealth more fairly. He stages regular regional tours, promising cash to provinces where many previously felt neglected by central government.

But economists say his policies of lowering interest rates and doling out Iran's windfall oil earnings are pushing up inflation, which they say is mainly hurting the poor who the president has said he is most eager to help.

Inflation was running at more than 17 percent in February, when the central bank last released figures for the consumer price index. Economists say prices are continuing to climb, a major grumble among ordinary Iranians.

Ahmadinejad has dismissed such criticism saying inflation is an issue that predates his government and has accused the media of exaggerating the problem.

Woman ties county blood alcohol record


A Pierce County woman apparently tied a record for the amount of alcohol in her blood when the Washington State Patrol toxicology lab measured a blood-alcohol content of 0.50 two hours after she was arrested for investigation of drunken driving.

Ann Marie Gordon, manager of the lab in Seattle, said the reading — more than six times the legal limit of 0.08 — tied the highest level ever found by technicians at the patrol's lab. A King County driver also registered 0.50 on a blood test in 2000, Gordon said.

"It certainly would kill many people," she said.

The average blood-alcohol content of drunken drivers stopped in Washington is about 0.15, Gordon added.

Rebecca G. Lingbloom, 45, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol on May 10. Authorities contended in an affidavit that she nearly hit a pedestrian that day and was seen swerving all over the road.

A Pierce County sheriff's deputy later found her passed out behind the wheel of her car in the Summit area, the affidavit states.

Deputy Prosecutor Bradley Moericke pointed out that Lingbloom was arrested for investigation of drunken driving twice in the 1990s, and asked District Court Judge Frank Dacca to jail her in lieu of $20,000 bail. Moericke also asked that Lingbloom be monitored with an electronic bracelet that would record her movements should she make bail.

Dacca declined both requests after Lingbloom told him she enrolled in a six-month treatment program for alcohol abuse not long after her arrest. Public defender Clarence Henderson told the judge he called the clinic before Wednesday's hearing and confirmed that Lingbloom was enrolled.

Dacca said he didn't want to jeopardize Lingbloom's treatment by sending her to jail. He did require that she continue her program and report to court July 24 for another hearing.

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Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com

Aussie ad campaign mocks speedsters' manhood



Young Australian men who drive too fast have had the size of their manhood questioned in the latest drive by anti-speeding campaigners to cut road deaths.

The below-the-belt television ads show women noticing a young man roaring past then turning scornfully to their friends and wiggling their little fingers.

The mocking gesture with the 'pinkie' is a clear sign they believe the driver is trying to compensate for an inadequate manhood, and is designed to counter the idea that speeding is cool and macho.

The "Speeding: No one thinks big of you" campaign targets young men between the ages of 17 and 25, the New South Wales state Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) said Monday after the ads aired for the first time on Sunday night.

"All the ads in the world showing the serious injury and death that speeding can cause are becoming less effective," the RTA said on its website.

"Increasingly, young guys simply reject this message. They have an 'it won’t happen to me' attitude."

The new campaign "could very well be the thread that unravels the mindset that speeding is cool."

The campaign runs on television, in cinemas, on posters at bus shelters and in an internet ad that offers speedsters an "xtra xtra small" condom.

RTA spokesman John Whelan acknowledged the ads would be controversial but told local media: "We will do what we feel we have to to get the message through."

Speeding is a factor in about 40 percent of road deaths in New South Wales, killing more than 220 people a year, the RTA says.

While I am fascinated by how he stands up to the US, or tries to in public, I do wish he was a bit for tactful about it. Comments like those on the Holocaust have damaged his credibility quite a bit outside the Muslim world.

Just a thought.

Iran president turns to butcher for economy tips

dont' forget American president turned to Intern for defense tips - ie. cuban heat seeking missile

LOL..Redcock



anyways He is more of a butcher than President..Psycho butcher Of Iran .