What is Digg?37 Comments
- jackelsmack, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Shadow-President Cheney is rescuing Iraqis from the tyranny of refridgeration, air conditioning and electric lighting. Huzzah for sweet freedom!
- Ascendant, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12I think the party motto from George Orwell’s novel 1984 needs to be updated with the times:
“War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength”
“Blackouts are Electricity
Getting Worse is Turning the Corner
Sectarian Violence is Progress” - ugmoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8There is more to the story than was given in the original post.
See page 31 http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf
The report shows that yes the average hours of electricity in _Baghdad_ has declined from a prewar estimate of 16-24 hours a day to 5.3 in September 2006.
But the average hours of electricity in _Nationwide_ has increase from a prewar estimate of 4-8 hours a day to 10.48hours a day in September 2006.
And, nationwide prewar total power was about 95,000 mega watt hours and was 95,000 also in September 2006.
[Note there is data from October, but the note at the bottom says the data is as of October 4, 2006 so I didn't include it]
Interesting factoids for Diggers.
Internet subscribers has increased from ~4500 prewar to ~200,000 in August 2006 (not including internet cafes).
Independent newspapers increased from 0 prewar to 268 as of March 2006
Why did the main post choose the particular piece of data they did instead of giving a clear picture to fellow Digg readers? - 1111, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It is true that the power in Baghdad has decreased, however this is slighly misleading. The net power in Iraq as a whole has increased. Before the war, the majority of power was routed to a few cities, one of which was Baghdad. The electricity was routed to other cities and villages so that at least some electricity was available in more locations.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2004/n09072004_2004090706.html - jamessavik, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Maybe it would help if the good citizens of Baghdad would refrain from blowing ***** up and sniping utility workers.
- Koosebane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Why did the main post choose the particular piece of data they did instead of giving a clear picture to fellow Digg readers?"
Because certain factions are just as capable of deliberately skewing data to suit their purposes as the politicians they constantly bitch about.
The cubicle monkey action committee wants Iraq to fail so they can gain political power. They'll twist the truth any way they can to succeed.
I salute your use of real facts to combat the incessant, mindless sloganeering. - totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5sounding more and more like manhattan every day.
- DarkEnder, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Um...go Bush?
- miaow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the problem is that the terrorists are destroying the infrastructure and killing workers. the iraqis and other muslims involved have made iraq a hell on earth for their fellow iraqis.
- AmishRefugee, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6i guess "remarkably well" means different things to different people
see satan...i mean Dick Cheney's words the other day
wow, how could i have made that mixup? - Habemus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No, it means that instead of diverting power from Shi'ia areas to keep Sunni Baghdad in power -- the available electricity is distributed equitably so that every region and city gets their fair share.
- Habemus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why do you want Sunni Baghdad to have more power than Shi'ia Basra? Shouldn't Basra get their fair share even if it means that Baghdad gets less electricity than it did before?
- elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, can the description be any more ambigious?
It's missing a couple "per day"'s, and it's saying just 'hours' instead of watt-hours. Honestly, it doesn't MEAN anything with how it's written now. - Habemus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hey *****, this is the right way to do it. In the Saddam era power was diverted from the Shi'ia areas to power the Sunni triangle where Saddam and his Sunni henchmen ran the show. The Shi'ia areas got even less electricity than they do now -- all so Saddam could pay off his friends and have them live in confort. Now power is routed to both Shi'ia and Sunni areas equally meaning that the Sunni Baghdad area gets less electricity than under Saddam. This is good. Unless you think Sunni are superior to Shi'ia.
Everyone would have full electicity if the damned Sunnis would stop blowing up the power plants each time they are put back online. - spankaccount, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's important to note that thinkprogress is a George Soros funded left wing media-blitz organization... for the record.
- Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@ascendant
While the new ones work well, I think those old ones are just as applicable still. =/
What would we do without the fight against the faceless enemy that's just about to come get us all? - Habemus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1>who do you think blew them up in the first place?
The ***** Iraqis that's who (mostly Sunni insurgents). The US Air Force went out of its way NOT to blow up infrastructure like we did in Serbia. NO POWER PLANTS were targetted by US forces in Iraq during the offensive military action. Not.a.one. None.
>the iraqi people were doing ok before we got there
LOL! Only if by getting put feet first into a wood chipper is your idea of "doing OK". - Soldan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1who do you think blew them up in the first place? it is OUR responsibilty to fix those plants..the iraqi people were doing ok before we got there... actually alot more western thinking than they are now....
name calling does not make your point. - Koosebane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Um.....let's hear it for skipping all the details?
- scotticus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Why do facts hate America?
- humanaut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Can we trust these people with electricity? I mean, really.. I can't think of anything more "dual use" than the ability to cook, heat, and see in the dark.
- dstz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Or maybe not, and that explain part of the anger ?
- Cymrubeats, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I wouldn't trust .mil or .gov pages for fact and truth anymore than i would trust a crackhead to housesit for me when i'm on holiday.
- CARPEDATAM, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Did Saddam contribute to ThinkProgress????
- Soldan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2this is not news...we have no intention of truly helping these people..we want to keep them oppressed enough to serve our purposes..
If this power situation is true where have all the reconstruction funds been going...? - kilofox, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Yet you trust thinkprogress.org which is nothing more than a partisan front for the DNC masquerading as "news" site? Thinkprogress is the nothing more than the DNC's web version of Fox News.
- ecthompson, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Can we get anything right over there?? Not as long as we outsource the war with Halliburton and friends
- Zarchon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1So America is blowing up the electric plants in Iraq?
Doesn't this really mean that the insurgents are destroying the infrastructure faster than we and/or the Iraqi government can fix it? - JonForTheWin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1The occupation of Iraq is a huge success for him. Soon Iraq will be divided into three regions and civil war will be provoked and fueled to keep Iraq busy with itself while also serving a pretext for long-term/permanent military bases.
- weasel75, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1not cool.....
actually - it is lame :( - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Aww come one, we may have bombed them back to the stone age, but at least they're free now!
- ryanfelix, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Everyone should follow! Stop Global Warming!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2yes they know how to make modern weapons and such but we must remember they were living in tents before we got there and dont understand white mans magical electricity.
By the way, THEY didnt get the contracts to do the rebuilding of the plants they had built themselves before the war.
We didnt bomb them stupid. - camino262, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2As an American, who the hell wants to spend a year or two over there rebuilding their power plants? They are going to have to do it on their own with our funding. I doubt they have widespread engineering knowledge like we do in the US. This may explain why power is not being restored as quickly as we thought it might.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3you people suck. I hate you all
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2OMFG...ZIONIST PIGS ARE EVIL....MUST DEStROY.....MUST WIPE THE FACE OF THE EARTH FROM THESE ZIONIST ***** PIGS....
DESTROY...
I CRY BECAUSE THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO HATE EVERYOJNE
die
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