Nitwit Tidbits

On the road Nitwit Tidbits today! Hope you had a great weekend!

Numbers For The Review - The crack staff at our web site holder have forwarded us the final stats for the Review this past year. There were 343,928 direct hits on our front page, with 3,291,117 page views for all pages...Never - ever - did we dream it would ever be this big.

If these numbers were truly given to Klein, he meant "crackhead" staff:

Klein's numbers are clearly invented.

Numbers Of Birds - It was a bad oil spill. And the environmental whackos come out of the woodwork. So get this - six (6) birds have been hurt by the spill in the ship channel. And so far - the money spent for the wildlife folks is now estimated at just over $329,000. To wash and clean wildlife effected by the spill? Over $329k? That is just about $54k a bird? We are really one screwed up society

Typically, Philip R. Klein missed the forest for the trees.

Philip's figure of six birds came from this article by the Associated Press. I suspect that Philip's financial estimate of "just over $329,000" came from his imagination, since no one is counting the cost yet. That money, if Philip's unsubstantiated number is indeed credible, is being used for a lot more than just cleaning up birds "effected" by the spill.

According to General Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson:

Plastic walls known as booms and oil-sucking skimmer boats were used to safeguard a lake that is a crucial breeding ground and a wildlife management area that lost its protective gates when Hurricane Ike roared ashore a year and a half ago, Patterson said.

The Lake is part of the Keith Lake Marsh ecosystem, an important fishery for the Upper Texas Coast. As another example of Klein's superficial understanding of the real issues, his sources apparently didn't include anyone from the shrimping and crabbing industry in Port Arthur, which would be directly impacted if the oil spill taints those areas were wildlife breed. From the Port Arthur News (emphasis in mine):

Keith Lake can be seen by motorists traveling Texas 87 towards Sabine Pass. A “cut” or pass connects the Intracoastal Canal to the lake and is a favorite fishing spot for many anglers. The cut, coupled with tidal changes, creates turbulent water flows into and out of Keith Lake Marsh. The pass was created in 1977 to enhance the production of finfish, crabs and shrimp to nearby marshes, according to the TPWD.

Perhaps Philip should wake up and smell the gumbo, I think there'e too much oil in the roux.

Numbers Of Emails - Okay - we cannot post all of the emails we get. We simply take them one at a time. However, some have been kind of rough this past week with the story about the young boy...sorry....young man running for school board. It seems we now have a following in North Orange County. Go figure? The emails crested 74 for the week. It was split 50/50. This might get interesting.

In reality, Philip posted only two purported messages from his readers this week; since the style and substance closely mirrors Philip's own writing style, I suspect he wrote both of them.

This is further corroborated by this notice that appeared on his "Front Page" for most of the week:

Numbers For The Evening News - Ratings are down again for the 4th quarter according to Radio and TV. The 6 p.m. news is going the way of the national evening news. Down again almost 14% for a five year period. Some even more. People are turning to FOX for their news. It is very very interesting.

I couldn't find a source called "Radio and TV," so Klein's attribution is as credible as his anonymous sources. Here are the top 10 shows in Southeast Texas, according to Nielsen's latest ratings for Southeast Texas:

Station	Network	Program	Time	RTG
KFDM	CBS	CH 6 NEWS Early News	Thu 6:00p-6:30p	p23.3
KFDM	CBS	CH 6 NEWS Early News	Mo-Fri 6:00p-6:30p	p20.2
KFDM	CBS	CH 6 NEWS Early News	Mon 6:00p-6:30p	p20.1
KFDM	CBS	CH 6 NEWS Early News	Tue 6:00p-6:30p	p19.8
KFDM	CBS	CH 6 NEWS Early News	Wed 6:00p-6:30p	p19.5
KFDM	CBS	Ch 6 Late News	Thu 10:00p-10:30p	p19.1
KFDM	CBS	CH 6 NEWS Early News	Fri 6:00p-6:30p	p18.6
KFDM	CBS	WHEEL-FORTNE Access	Thu 6:30p-7:00p	p18.4
KFDM	CBS	WHEEL-FORTNE Access	Mon 6:30p-7:00p	p17.9
KFDM	CBS	WHEEL-FORTNE Access	Fri 6:30p-7:00p	p17.4

Ironically, I couldn't find any of the Channel 4 News broadcasts listed in the Top 50 shows.

Number Of Dollars Spent To Fire Fireman - The cost of man hours and now outside legal counsel to fire the fireman that city council in Beaumont Texas?

"That city council" what? This is gibberish, since most sentences contain a complete thought including a subject and verb.  Because reading and writing skills reflect one's comprehension skills, we can deduce that Philip is very confused.

Number Of Numbers In The Gas Business - The number has crested just over $22 million in the estimation based upon futures in the Gas Market! Money back to the people? Zero.

Philip's confusion is showing again. Compare Philip's gibberish with the real futures market for the petroleum industry. A quick look at this article from the Wall Street Journal provides further evidence of Klein's idiocy.

Ironically, Klein has come down firmly on both sides of that fence, since he frequently claims he's "business-friendly." Perhaps he's only friendly towards businesses outside the petroleum and media sectors, or when Hilton Kelley is involved.

Number of Subscribers To The Enterprise - Seemingly has hit bottom. Not many online folks either. Will people pay to read the Enterprise online? Nope - but we hope they do - our numbers will skyrocket.

No source provided, but Philip's unsubstantiated opinion is more gibberish. The "bottom" would imply no subscribers at all. Here's some numbers from Sitelogr.com for the world ranking in website traffic:

• #116,717: The Beaumont Enterprise:
• #7,350,488: The Southeast Texas Political Review:

There are more than 7.3 million websites who experience more traffic that the Southeast Texas Political Review.

Number Of Spelling Mistakes On The Review This Week - We counted 23.

Number of Spelling Mistakes On The Channel Six Web Site - We counted 18. Example :

"A cold front is moving across Southeast Texas, bringing with it ligh to moderate rain but now severe weather. Rainfall of one to two inches is reported in some parts of the area, including Hardin."

I counted over 40 spelling mistakes on Klein's site this week, far too many to document here.

More importantly, there is a big difference between a simple typographical error:

...bringing with it ligh to moderate...

And an error based on ignorance:

To wash and clean wildlife effected by the spill?

Philip' confused "affect" with "effect."  Is Philip really smarter than a fifth-grader? How about this:

There has been a Coo right in front of your face.

Klein meant "coup."  Nor does Klein's simplistic observation address his grammatical train wrecks, representative of his breakdown in comprehension:

The cost of man hours and now outside legal counsel to fire the fireman that city council in Beaumont Texas?

Let's revisit two items from last week's Nitwit Tidbits:

KFDM - Now wait a minute? The Enterprise writes an article - the article says that two TV Stations and a Newspaper group files a PIR for the name of a police officer that shot a man at Parkdale Mall. The story? Not the name - but who didn't file the PIR? Two TV Stations....being? NOT THE NEWS LEADER KFDM? Uh......which TV news station has a city councilwomen that.....oh never mind. Just our overactive imagination?

Philip meant FOI (Freedom of Information) request, not a PIR (Purely Invented Reference; see the Nitwit Tidbit directly above).

As it turns out, KFDM was among the first to release the officer's name this week:

Grand jury clears officer involved in Parkdale Mall fatal shooting
January 28, 2010 10:27 AM

District Attorney Tom Maness says the grand jury met Thursday morning and no billed Sgt. Al Johnson, 61, in the December 29 shooting. The panel determined there was no criminal wrongdoing on the part of Sgt. Johnson, according to Maness.

Even more interesting, KFDM was apparently the only media outlet in Southeast Texas that followed through with another FOI request:

KFDM News filed a Freedom of Information request for the Beaumont Police dispatch communications from the officer-involved shooting.

The results:

Police say the tape demonstrates Sgt. Al Johnson tried repeatedly to talk the man into giving up before Johnson was forced to shoot him.

Channel 6 posted a portion of the transcripts on their website. I missed that part of the story on website of KBTV Channel 4, now known as Klein TV.

Finally, there was this promise in Philip's Nitwit Tidbits last week:

Finally - War declared on us by Tom Maness and Judge Larry Thorne. Story next week. You gotta hear this one. You will simply giggle.

That story never appeared. Where's the beef, Philip?