It seems President Ahmedinejad and his littel Napolean complex may have screwed up royally, unless Iran has a fleet of nuclear powered cars hanging around somewhere:

Unrest spread in Tehran on Thursday, the second day of gasoline rationing in oil-rich Iran, with drivers lining up for miles, gas stations being set on fire and state-run banks and business centers coming under attack.

Dozens were arrested, and the Tehran police chief, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, complained to reporters that the police had been caught unaware by the decision to ration fuel.

The anger posed a keen threat to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected two years ago on a platform of bringing income from oil to the nation’s households. Instead, even though Iran is one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil, it has been forced to import about 40 percent of its gasoline at an annual cost of $5 billion to make up for shortfalls in its archaic refining industry.

Some analysts said the decision to ration gasoline was intended to prepare for the possibility of more United Nations economic sanctions as a result of concern over Iran’s nuclear program.

You really don’t want to go off on a nuclear-jihad if you can’t even keep your cars and commerce running. It is amazing that all the effort Iran has put into processing nuclear material superceded the needed upgrades to their refining infrastructure. It would seem to pale cost-wise in comparison. Clearly this puts the lie to Iran’s claim the nuclear material is for domestic power uses. If they are not even taking care of transportation, then why invest in a major power capabilty? It would seem you would do the gas refineries before anything else given how it can cripple a nation if it becomes short in supply.

Will this topple little Napolean and the Mad Mullahs? It’s possible.