Getting it wrong

Harold Meyerson is either ignorant or a liar. Your call:

Unemployment in Iraq exceeds 50 percent. Electrical power is on, in midsummer Baghdad, for four hours a day.

Fortunately for us, the centrist (some would say liberal) Brookings Institution released a recent survey on Iraq. According to its Iraq Index the most recent unemployment figures for Iraq are 27-40 percent. Power generation is estimated at 12.8 hours per day. Now, Meyerson said Baghdad specifically. Well, here's what the virulently anti-American Baghdad Burning blog has to say about the electricity situation in the city:

The electrical situation differs from area to area. On some days, the electricity schedule is two hours of electricity, and then four hours of no electricity. On other days, it’s four hours of electricity to four or six hours of no electricity.

This would seem to be confirmed by this story:

Electricity flickers on and off for two hours in Muthana Naim's south Baghdad home then shuts off for four in boiling July heat that shoots above 120 degrees.

So if my math is correct, Riverbend's blog entry means that Baghdad typically has 8 hours under the first scenario and 12 hours or so under the second. The news story suggests 8 hours per day. Either way, Meyerson is wrong.