Spinning Tops On The Ship Of Fools
Philip writes of a preliminary budget meeting between the Jefferson County Commissioners and Sheriff's Office this week:
"But now for the spin - they say they only have a few deputies patrolling at night and cannot hire enough deputies to work the job because they do not get paid enough. So - pay us more and we can recruit more and we can hire more and we can cover the night shift!
That's not exactly what happened - compare the differences in Klein's account with that of the
Beaumont Enterprise. I'll reserve comment on this issue until the real facts on this year's budget emerge. Given that fuel prices have risen 40 percent in the past 6 months, I think an increased budget is a foregone conclusion.
Readers will notice that after Klein brought this issue up in May, he still hasn't responded to my observation that Jefferson County's ranks in the 40 percentile of lowest tax rates across the state's 254 counties. Nor has Klein commented on budget increases in other counties as compared to Jefferson County.
I compared the budget of Jefferson County with Montgomery county, which is roughly a third bigger. Montgomery County's tax rate is about 7 cents more than Jefferson county.
When considering Klein's misconceptions, I wonder who he's referencing in
"...Ship of Fools." Article Statistics- Manufactured sources: 1
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Lower Than Bush
I'll address some questions that Philip posed first:
"How about this - get your butts up and get a job and get to work. Oh....unemployment is at its lowest rate since when? Wages are higher than they have ever been? The stock market is setting records? Economic indicators are looking pretty good?"
Actually, the unemployment rate for May is at it's lowest rate, 4.5, only since April, when the rate was 4.4.
Regarding wages, Klein is simply wrong - the preliminary average hourly wage decreased in May to 17.27, down from 17.33 in April.
Concerning Klein's observation on the stock market, performance continues to ping-pong - after Tuesday's big sell-off, the markets rallied again. I'm writing this before the CPI is released this morning, so let's see what happens today.
Finally Klein mentions economic indicators - in Wednesday's report from the Fed, first quarter economic growth, as measured by GNP, slowed to 0.6. This is the weakest showing in more than four years.
When it comes to a economics, Philip can't buy a clue - I remember this shrewd observation from PRK: "...good economy higher gas prices. Supply - demand."
In reference to the article itself, Klein wrote:
"All [the Democrats] can come up with is higher taxes. "
Despite Klein's biased partisan rhetoric, the higher minimum wage to which he refers passed Congress with a non-partisan majority in both houses. Only small minority of Republicans and Democrats voted against that bill.
I challenge Klein to provide a real example of "higher taxes." Note, however, someone will need to pay higher taxes if deporting 12 million illegal workers, securing our southern border, and occupying Iraq are important issues.
Philip pirated his subject from the Wonkette's article on the same day. While the Wonkette referred to Americans as "suckers," Klein changed this to:
"So be mad you nanny Americans."
Nanny Americans? Perhaps Klein meant "ninny" Americans.
This reveals why Klein is often mistaken. Rather than reading source documents for the real story, his news comes from more dubious sources.
Another excellent example came during a revealing exchange on his subscriber-only Talkback Line this week. This exchange underscored the bizarre nature of Klein's so-called sources. Here's his original posting:
"Note : This was sent to me today. Interesting facts taking out the cursing. Any thoughts to start the week off : "
[The Guy from Boston]
"Philip R. Klein, Editor"
Despite Philip's spin, those aren't facts. For instance, 95 percent of all homicide warrants are not issued on illegals. This was also noted by one of Klein's subscribers, who shut Philip down rather quickly:
"Facts? That rant is bereft of facts. There are no such numbers of homicides nor of deaths due to drunk driving illegals. It's just nonsense. Locally I know of only one murder of an American by two illegals and one death which was probably a drunken illegal but the suspect was never identified. Those two only in more than 30 years, and we have thousands of illegals in this area. Better to rely on Uniform Crime Report figures I think. "
Readers should also note that the Guy from Boston's entire
schtick is stolen from the original Kid From Brooklyn.
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Andy
Concerning the passing of Andrew Cokinos, Philip wrote:
"Our only beef with Cokinos was his inability to resign from the office when he could not completely understand or attend the meetings."
As to whether Cokinos could understand the meetings is simply Klein's opinion. Instead, Philip finds a way to throw mud at the passing of a true hero to many of us - discussing Andy's job performance in the months after he suffered a stroke is in very
poor taste at this time.
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