Welcome to the Zone, the TWILIGHT ZONE, that is...

In Today's Zone we have a twofer: 

♦ Remember the Russian elections this past Sunday? Well, turns out Vladimir Putin garnered 1,482 votes to his opponent's single vote at one Chechen precinct. Problem is there were only 1,389 voters registered in that district, which means Mr. Putin attracted a turnout of 107 percent. Congrats to Mr. Putin and his KGB thugocracy!

♦ Remember a couple of weeks ago, when Iran sent senior IAEA officials packing, after denying them access to its nuclear sites? Well, let's not dwell on Iran’s impolite behavior, as it appears the P5-plus-1 (i.e., the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) have just agreed to a new round, rather, another new round of nuclear talks with Iran.

Needless to say, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton is elated, as is often the case with Ms. Ashton, when Iran looks her way. Ms. Ashton said in a statement today that the EU hopes Iran "will now enter into a sustained process of constructive dialogue which will deliver real progress in resolving the international community's long-standing concerns on its nuclear program." 

Bless Ms. Ashton's little ol' heart, except you know what they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, right? It's the definition of INSANITY, although frankly, we’d call it plain ol’ STUPIDITY.