Description of problem:
Whenever I try to run mock on my F13 system, I get the following:

INFO: mock.py version 1.1.1 starting...
State Changed: init plugins
State Changed: start
INFO: Start(/home/ossman/rpm/SRPMS/cendio-build-utils-1.1-1.src.rpm)  Config(epel-5-i386)
State Changed: lock buildroot
State Changed: clean
State Changed: init
ERROR: Could not create dir /var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/result. Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/result'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/mock/util.py", line 60, in mkdirIfAbsent
    os.makedirs(dirName)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/os.py", line 157, in makedirs
    mkdir(name, mode)
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/result'
ERROR: Exception(/home/ossman/rpm/SRPMS/cendio-build-utils-1.1-1.src.rpm) Config(epel-5-i386) 0 minutes 0 seconds
INFO: Results and/or logs in: /var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/result
ERROR: Could not create dir /var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/result. Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/result'

I am provided with the consolehelper dialog so it should be getting the privileges needed. There is also nothing wrong with the installation of the package:

$ rpm -V mock

$

Here's the relevant directory:

$ ll -a /var/lib/mock/epel-5-i386/
total 12
drwxrwsr-x 3 root mock 4096 Jul 15 13:12 .
drwxrwsr-x 3 root mock 4096 Jul 15 13:12 ..
drwxrwsr-x 2 root mock 4096 Jul 15 13:12 root