Aright guys, time for lights out. Goodnight! Love you!

This would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Today, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (formerly employed by a giant oil company, suprise!), Zalmay Khalilzad was having a press conference with General George Casey talking about the progress in Iraq (October is the deadliest month in two years for US soldiers.) As the Ambassador was talking suddenly everything went black!

Then



The electricity went out, in the press briefing room.

"Aren't they in the Green Zone?" you ask. Yes. Electricity, even in the heavily fortified "Emerald City", (the green zone is a giant American enclave in the middle of Baghdad surrounded by a massive concrete wall) the electricity still shuts off.

"What about a generator?" you ask. They were already using a generator because, apparently, the elecricity shut down BEFORE the press conference even began so they were using the backup. Three years after the U.S. "liberated" Iraq... which we would have done even if Iraq was in the middle of africa and its main export was apples!!...the Iraqi people average, if they are lucky, 2.5 hours of electricity a day

Here are the transcripts from the state dept website:

AMB. KHALILZAD: I can't see -- so I hope I'm not discriminating any -- yes, please. The lady in the back, and then I'll come here, and then the lady in the back there. Yeah.

Q Thanks.

AMB. KHALILZAD: Yes?

Q Mr. Ambassador --

AMB. KHALILZAD: I can't quite see you, so -- Q (Off mike.)

AMB. KHALILZAD: -- you have to assert yourself.

Q (Name off mike) -- Fox News.

AMB. KHALILZAD: Yeah.

And an article from Think Progress:

This morning, coverage of U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George Casey’s Baghdad press conference was briefly interrupted.

The TurkishPress notes that “the hall was plunged into darkness by one of Baghdad’s regular power cuts, despite the fact the venue was in the capital’s heavily-fortified Green Zone, also home to the US embassy.”

While the power cut may have been an inconvenience for the media outlets and for Khalilzad — who “kept talking in obscurity for three or four minutes until order was restored” — it’s part of daily life for residents in Baghdad. Electricity levels in the city are at an all-time low. Residents now receive an average of just 2.4 hours per day, compared to 16-24 hours before the U.S. invasion.