Turn up the A/C

If you are hot this summer, just head to Iraq where the U.S. Government will be making sure that the A/C works great so as to keep the Iraqis comfortable while we try to stablize their country. The U.S. government plans to spend something near $19 billion of our tax dollars to rebuild the electrical grid in Iraq so that the A/C works well this summer.

According to the Reuters news service, The United States is reshuffling Iraq rebuilding funds, putting more focus on electricity before the hot summer months to ease tensions exacerbated by daily power cuts, senior U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Bill Taylor, a senior U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad, said use of the $18.4 billion allocated by Congress for rebuilding Iraq was being reassessed to deal with surging electricity demands caused by air-conditioning in the summer, particularly in Baghdad. "We all know the Iraqi summers are very tough and very hot and electricity is very important to get these people through it," said Taylor in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "We want to increase output, reduce the outages and we want the Iraqi people to see that their government is making their lives better," he added.

There you have it. If you are hot this summer, head to Iraq. If you feel like you are paying too much to the IRS this April, feel good knowing that you are in some way assisting in the War on Terror and in helping to spread Democracy, and air conditioning, in the Middle East. Is this a great country or what?!