Summer of Crime

In this posting on the Southeast Texas Political Review, Philip R. Klein recycles some old material (emphasis is mine):

Last week we mentioned it - that is - the summer of crime that seemingly had gripped Jefferson County, Texas.

Almost every summer, Philip predicts a long "summer of crime" at some point. When crime was especially low during summer 2009, he published this mea culpa (emphasis is mine) at the end of August:

Officers with the Port Arthur Police Department report that the summer of crime predicted in Port Arthur was not as bad as everyone thought it would be during the spring crime spree.

Note that Philip was the only person predicting a "summer of crime." I'm not sure how anyone could confuse this gibberish with serious political commentary:

Can you say wow! A few homicides - some bodies hanging around that have been out in the woods - and drive-bys....which are nothing but usual? 

Did we mention the record about of robberies this past week?

Where did that money come from? You and I - and we are left. Everyone other has left.

Yes - we agree that the DA's office sucks.

Yes - there are some very happy county employees......opppss....there were.

Typically, Klein misstates the facts:

Did we mention employment? The HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IN TEXAS. Over 11.9% of the public is unemployed.

In this case, he's off by roughly a percentage point, according to the numbers published in the Beaumont Enterprise:

Employment is up in Southeast Texas by 600 jobs for June, but so is the unemployment rate - to 11.2 percent...

Neither does Beaumont/Port Arthur have the highest unemployment rates. According to the Texas Workforce Commission, Jefferson County is third and McAllen again topped the state at 12.2 percent. This ranking has been the same for the past three decades.

Keep moving, please. There is no intelligent life here.