PERHAPS COL TUCKER MISSED THIS ONE.

Seems there are some folks in Baghdad with some initiative after all.

Some Baghdad entrepreneurs are buying the larger generators and going door-to-door, selling amps of electricity directly to homeowners. After parking the truck-sized generator on a block, they run lines to each customer and charge by usage - a mini power station.

By all accounts, Iraq is suffering. But name the shortage, and there is someone making a profit from it. Hotels that used to charge less than $10 for a room, mostly to Iraqi honeymooners who couldn't afford to go abroad, are making as much as $90 a room from the foreign journalists who have flocked to town.

Need to make an international phone call? Impossible through Iraq's phone company, but independent businesses will rent you a Thuraya satellite phone for about $1 a minute.

Actually - it's up to $1.50 according to CPT Patti who called me via this method last week.

Good story, read it here.