KyKurmudgeon

Other duties have me tied up this. Next week probably will be the same. And the week after that, I’m taking some time off for the holidays. Don’t know when normality will return.

I’m not dancing yet, but I got lucky and had the “one week on crutches” version of knee surgery. So, I’m back to being a kurmudgeonly editorial writer/columnist/blogger.

I’m scheduled to get a knee scoped Wednesday. If I’m lucky, I’ll be bouncing around again in one week. If I’m unlucky, I won’t do any bouncing for four weeks. Since it’s my right (driving) knee, guess which I prefer.

Anyway, if it’s the unlucky option, I may do some blogging and editorial writing from home during those four weeks. I might even write a column or two. On the other hand, I may just lie on my butt reading good books, watching old movies and cussing out the brace immobilizing my leg.

Tied up with other duties all week. Hope to return to some level of normality next week.

Regular H-L readers know we’ve endured significant budgetary cutbacks in the last year or so, including multiple rounds of buyouts and layoffs. Regular visitors to KyKurmudgeon probably realize, from the reduced number of posts and the reduced number of columns, that I’ve been spending more time on other editorial duties as a result of our staff losing one-and-a-half positions in earlier rounds of reductions.

Well, it’s about to get worse. As a result of the most recent round of layoffs, Friday will be the last day for one of our editorial writers. It’s a tremendous loss of knowledge, experience, creativity for our pages, not to mention a tremendous loss of humor in our office discussions. And personally more me, it means I’m going be writing a lot more editorials in the future as well as helping out with more page production work, both of which will cause me to spend even less time blogging.

Plans at the moment have me continuing to write Sunday columns on a regular basis - or at least a semi-regular basis since our numbers are now so low that the absence of any of my colleagues due to vacation or illness will drastically increase the workload on those who remain in the office. Those columns will continue to be posted here at KyKurmudgeon. And I hope to throw in other posts occasionally as time allows.

This new situation also means I will spend less time on the ground in Frankfort than I have in recent years, although I still hope to be there for as much of future legislative sessions as possible and for other important events. Since the best information is the information you gather up close and personal, I am way disappointed by this situation.

But it is what it is, and I and my remaining colleagues will try our best to continue producing quality work and to continue the lively conversation we’ve had with our readers over many years. But without our friend and longtime colleague it won’t be nearly as much fun as it has been.

I’m filling in for absent colleagues this week.

For the past couple of weeks, the H-L editorial staff has been shorthanded again. When you’re down to as few people as we have now, it happens frequently. So, I’ve been filling in, writing editorials, editing copy, etc., while still trying to keep the columns going. But the blogging has suffered. Now, though, everyone is back on the job (for the next couple of weeks, at least). So, the ol’ Kurmudgeon can get back to being kurmudgeonly. We’ll start with a few short takes on recent events.

1. Rand Paul’s performance at the Fancy Farm Picnic left me unimpressed, but I can’t say the same about his Aug. 21 Internet “money bomb” event. Anyone raises more than $425,000 online in one day has proved he will have the money to be a player in the Republicans’ 2010 U.S. Senate primary. So, what if most of the contributions came from out of state? Out-of-state money spends the same as in-state money when it comes to financing campaigns. Secretary of State Trey Grayson remains the favorite, and I suspect he leads Paul by a wider margin than the recent SurveyUSA poll indicated. But even though Paul appeals more to libertarians than to mainstream Republicans, Grayson has to treat him as a serious threat, because the Bowling Green ophthalmologist won’t be going away anytime soon.

2. Some may see Democratic state Rep. Robin Webb’s narrow victory in Tuesday’s special election to fill the state Senate’s 18th District seat as a sign of public support for racetrack slots. I don’t. Even though expanded gambling was an issue in the race, Webb’s winning margin was too small to suggest any kind of mandate on any issue. But there is a gambling-related lesson that came out of this race, one that relates to Webb’s support for racetrack slots during the June special session of the General Assembly. The lesson is that a vote for expanded gambling is not sufficient in and of itself to get a lawmaker defeated the next time he or she faces voters, even in a district that has voted conservatively for the last 20 years. Maybe that will give a few legislators a bit more backbone the next time this issue comes up for a vote.

3. State Rep. Darryl Owens has pre-filed legislation that would take the reference to dueling out of the oath public officials swear to when they take office. I’m agin the bill. I think the provision requiring officials to swear they have not fought a duel, sent or accepted a challege to fight a duel or acted as a second in a duel adds a bit of character to the Kentucky oath of office. The state constitution has many outdated provisions that need to be addressed. But our dueling oath isn’t one of the important ones.

Sunday’s column:

I now have had THAT experience. The experience where dealing honestly with government bureaucracy just gets you screwed — royally.

The experience that makes a person think about packing a few necessities — definitely including multiple firearms and a lifetime supply of ammo — and heading for the hills to live a survivalist life because they can’t screw you if they can’t find you.

OK, that thought didn’t last long in my mind because the modest hunting and fishing skills of my youth long since faded away. These days, I wouldn’t last any longer in the wilderness than it would take me to stumble into the first patch of poison ivy.

But back to THAT experience.

As regular readers are aware, Uncle Herald has tightened his belt a bit lately, and not just by reducing the size of the paper. Multiple rounds of buyouts and layoffs have now led to the F word.

Furloughs. One week of unpaid furloughs for all. I bit the bullet the week of Aug. 3, a decision I now regret.

Uncle Herald’s work week runs from Monday through Sunday, and the Fancy Farm Picnic prompted me to work Wednesday through Sunday the week before I went on furlough.

Since unpaid furlough qualifies a person to collect unemployment insurance, I went online at home Aug. 3 and filed my claim, in the process honestly responding to a question by reporting that the last day I worked was Aug. 2.
Filing the claim went smoothly, and I was informed at the end of the process that I could start requesting my check Aug. 16.

A few days later, I received a letter from the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet telling me the amount of benefits I would be eligible to receive.

Requesting my check proved a bit more difficult.

When I went online to do so Aug. 16, the system kept stopping me at a particular point in the process with a message that was incomprehensible to me. Same result when I tried again the next day. So, off to the unemployment office I went.

After registering, I chatted with an acquaintance for the last half-hour of her three-hour wait to be seen. Then, I settled in for my own long wait.

But an hour or so later, a lady walked in and told a man at the registration counter she was having trouble completing a form online. He directed her to one of the computers in the office, and told her he would come help her when she encountered her problem.

I asked if he would do the same for me, and he agreed. When he showed me what I needed to do, I learned that, for unemployment purposes, the work week runs Sunday through Saturday and that, because I had worked Sunday, Aug. 2, I had to report my earnings for that day. I did, and was able to complete the process.

Then, I asked the guy if reporting those earnings would reduce my benefits. He said it would but it would be a “wash” because I had earnings that week.

I tried to explain about Uncle Herald’s Monday-Sunday work week and that my furlough would cost me a full week’s wages. But for whatever reason, I couldn’t get him to understand. He just smiled, handed me a pamphlet, suggested I read it and turned his attention to someone else.

I walked away feeling certain I was screwed. Sure enough, when the check arrived a couple of days later, it was for less than half the amount the earlier letter said I was eligible to receive.

Could the outcome have been different if I had dealt with someone else at the unemployment office? I don’t know.

Maybe there are ways to make the system accommodate the fact that not all work weeks run from Sunday through Saturday. Maybe not.

Could I have appealed to someone higher in the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet? Perhaps.

A columnist at one of the state’s larger media outlets ought to be able to get a return call from the cabinet. But Joe Sixpack might not. Therefore, making the call that might prompt the return call would be taking advantage of my position, which is an ethical no-no for a journalist.

So, I just cashed my small check and learned my lesson from getting screwed for answering a bureaucratic question truthfully. If Uncle Herald decides more furloughs are in our future, you can be darn sure I won’t take mine the week after working a Sunday.

Sunday’s column:

This and that, the Pitino Goes Porno at Porcini Edition:

University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino admits having drunken sex in a restaurant (after hours, thankfully for that night’s patrons) with a woman he just met and giving her $3,000 later so she could have an abortion.

After Pitino publicly apologizes, U of L President James Ramsey says, “We hope this closes this chapter; we’re all ready to move on.”

There’s wishful thinking, and then there’s WISHFUL THINKING TO THE NTH DEGREE. Ramsey’s desire to move on falls at the extreme end of the latter category.

With Karen Sypher facing federal extortion charges stemming from her 2003 tabletop tryst with/assault by Pitino (he said/she said), a swift end is unlikely for this soap opera, which my former boss David Holwerk dubbed “Cardinal Sin” in an e-mail last week.

As it plays out in the future, here’s hoping Steve Pence, former lieutenant governor and current Pitino lawyer, comes up with some better explanations than the one about the $3,000 being given to Sypher so she could buy health insurance, not to pay for an abortion.

That’s about as lame as the “noodling out of season” excuse Pence’s ex-running mate, former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, used while trying to spin his way out of the BlackBerry Jam hiring scandal that ultimately resulted in his indictment, which was dismissed after he cut a deal with prosecutors.

Whether Sypher was given the $3,000 to buy health insurance so she could have an abortion or to pay for the abortion itself, the end result remains the same. She got an abortion, courtesy of money Pitino gave her.

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A background that includes being a onetime Democrat who confesses to having voted for Bill Clinton didn’t hinder Republican convert Trey Grayson when he ran for secretary of state in 2003 and again in 2007.

After all, controversial issues rarely wind up on a secretary of state’s plate. So, an ability to manage the agency honestly and efficiently is more important than any political leanings a candidate for the office might have.

However, now that he wants to succeed U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, Grayson has to polish up his conservative street creds sufficiently to assure the Republican base that he is fully rehabilitated from his youthful errant ways.

Thus, a recent fund-raising appeal contained seven glowing “conservative” references and six derogatory “liberal” references. It also noted Grayson’s opposition to the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At first blush, taking a stand on the Sotomayor nomination might seem pointless for a candidate who would have no say in the matter. Besides, by the time Grayson voiced his opposition, her confirmation was a foregone conclusion. So, why risk alienating any voters at all by jumping into that particular melee needlessly?

But the National Rifle Association took a strong interest in the Sotomayor nomination, and it wasn’t in her favor. Thus, by taking a position that coincided with the NRA, Grayson added a bit more polish to those street creds.

Of course, by stressing his conservatism in an appeal to the right, Grayson risks alienating moderate voters who have supported him in the past.

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Pikeville College scored big when former Gov. Paul Patton agreed to be the institution’s new president, and not just because he will serve two years without pay. Patton’s commitment to the success of the college is reflected by his 30 years of monetary support and service on its board.

But if this new job causes Patton to give up his Council on Postsecondary Education seat, Kentucky will be the loser. Higher education in this state has no better champion than Patton, the architect of reforms that created the CPE more than a decade ago. His presence on its board helps keep everyone’s eye on the ultimate prize.

KyKurmudgeon spent last week exiled from work, and from getting paid. Such are the lives of journalists in these lousy economic days. They have to learn new things, such as how to file for unemployment.

Since I couldn’t check my office e-mail or voice mail while serving my figurative time on Elba, it has taken some time to catch up today.

It appears I missed a bit of fun, what with the whole flap about Attorney General Jack Conway’s Fancy Farm speech. I’ll have a couple of thoughts on that subject in Wednesday’s column.