U.S. Drops Baghdad Electricity Reports (To Congress as Daily Power for Residents Falls)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Los Angeles Times

U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports
The daily length of time that residents have power has dropped. The figure is considered a key indicator of quality of life.
By Noam N. Levey and Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff Writers
July 27, 2007

WASHINGTON — washington — As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only "an hour or two a day" of electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.

But that piece of data has not been sent to lawmakers for months because the State Department, which prepares a weekly "status report" for Congress on conditions in Iraq, stopped estimating in May how many hours of electricity Baghdad residents typically receive each day.

Instead, the department now reports on the electricity generated nationwide, a measurement that does not indicate how much power Iraqis in Baghdad or elsewhere actually receive. The change, a State Department spokesman said, reflects a technical decision by reconstruction officials in Baghdad who are scaling back efforts to estimate electricity consumption as they wind down U.S. involvement in rebuilding Iraq's power grid.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/la-na-iraqpower27jul27,0,705711.story?coll=la-home-center

[dbt]

1. Return with us now to those Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear!

October 27, 2003, as chronicled at whitehouse.gov, article entitled President Bush, Ambassador Bremer Discuss Progress in Iraq

THE PRESIDENT: I'll let the Ambassador speak. Again, I will repeat myself, that the more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity is available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become, because they can't stand the thought of a free society.

AMBASSADOR BREMER: Well, a lot of wonderful things have happened in Iraq since July, as you mentioned. We have a cabinet now, with ministers actually conducting affairs of state. We have met all of our goals in restoring essential services. All the schools and hospitals are open. Electricity is back at pre-war levels.

Link

Your tax dollars at lunch!

:rofl:

[arewenotdemo]

12. What Chef L. Paul Bremer III actually meant

was that his Green Zone palatial kitchen had service 24/7.

[Demeter]

2. Standard Operating Procedure at BushCo

If you don't like the numbers, don't count them!

They did it with M1. They did it with the War budget. They did it with every Miserable Failure!

[Robbien]

3. Iraqis do not pay for electricity supplied by the state

One wonders if this may have been one of the factors behind the very slow movement in rebuilding electricity grid. Yes, Halliburton was part of it and the security factor was part of it. But it must have chafed Cheney's butt to give away oil for free to Iraqi citizens.

Just a stray thought.

[rcdean]

4. Good ole' American No How

No way either.

Fifty years ago we went from producing 0 bombers a year to producing 50,000 bombers a year IN ONE YEAR. Today we can't even get the electricity back on line in Baghdad after 5 years!

These people will live in infamy for their incompetence!

[Vinca]

5. Now, now, now. Positive news only. They're reducing their carbon footprints. nt

[Roland99]

6. Zing!

[saigon68]

7. "Freedom is on the March" Exclaimed the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Norquist Nemesis]

8. Anyone know if the residents and the Iraqi Congress are on the same lines?

Personally, I'd be a really pissed off resident if I only got two hours of juice to run my A/C in 110 degree heat everyday, while the do-nothing ivory tower that I "risked my life to go and vote" for gets 24/7 environmental comfort. :shrug:

[gratuitous]

9. Strange . . .

This was exactly one of those objective benchmarks I mentioned when I said that Democrats should be talking now about what should be in the report in September: How many hours a day does Baghdad get reliable electricity? There are others, of course, but apparently even the corrupt Bush administration recognizes that hard questions with definite answers are to be avoided as they talk up the "success" of the "temporary surge" nine months along with no prospect of ending anytime soon.

The evidence is right before your eyes, Congress. How long will you continue to wish it away? The people who voted you into power last November, in their only chance to do something about this continuing atrocity, are growing increasingly impatient as you fumble away chance after chance.

[ooglymoogly]

10. You must never believe your lie'n eyes....

Betcha a million gazillion dollars that 99% of that electricity they are reporting on so proudly goes to the comfort of the green zone and the military. just imagine for a moment, 1 hour of electricity in 130 degree heat. At what temp does the brain fry? But then we brought them democracy....and that my friends is why they are throwing flowers at our feet....um....oh wait all the flowers are dead and gone from the heat and no water along with everything else including many members of their families...Yes it is just a win win situation for those lucky Iraqi's.

[Felix Mala]

11. The grid hates Bush and wants America to lose...

[ck4829]

13. Kick

[Supersedeas]

14. Nothing to see here....feed them more Lohan....much more Lohan

[truthisfreedom]

15. Amazing. We have nearly liberated them to death.

Just a bit less electricity, and they're in the stone ages!

[Supersedeas]

16. but the Sunday WH Talking Pt shows call it 'progress'

[DemoTex]

17. It's all part of the policy to keep "Congress in the dark".

Literally, in this case.

[donkeyotay]

18. The Ostrich administration thinks reality doesn't happen if it's not a talking point

Ignore the bad news and catapult the bullshit.

Kick.