There's something seriously wrong when one party wants to extend voting, via registration and time extensions for those wishing to vote, while the other is against such actions... in the name of voting safety. Have we become that scared of our underlying democracy, or who we are as a nation these days? Or are we just so ornery that whenever one party says one thing the other has to say the opposite?

It's been one of those times of late, especially in Ulster County... where the GOP majority in the legislature, under a chairman who just lost her bid for reelection from the committee she was supposed to represent, has been casting some very strange votes of late.

The GOP majority in Kingston's pushing for new debate rules that would limit the resolutions coming to the floor for debate... to only those the majority-controlled committees decide should head that direction.

In other words... Shhhh, we're working here, voters. Leave us alone until the next time we allow you to vote.

As for all that voting stuff... voting 13-9, the county legislature recently adopted a Republican-sponsored resolution opposing the passage of state legislation that would provide a two-week window for voters in New York to cast their ballot. As one legislator put it on the majority side (which included Wawarsing Democrat T.J. Briggs), "Early voting is a lame excuse for somebody who isn't going to vote anyway. If you can't get out on the day to vote, I don't think we should readjust the calendar because of that... All we do is make it easier and easier and easier for everybody, and nobody's responsible for their own actions, and we have a problem with that."

Ulster legislators also voted against having the county pick up more of the cost of local elections... on a tie-vote based on the reasoning that the county was already doing enough picking up safety net social welfare costs for individual municipalities such as Ellenville.

So much for the idea of an open-armed Republic, as well as an all-inclusive Democracy...

But then, this level of partisanship isn't limited to the county building in Kingston, so aptly termed the "glass menagerie" by all who work there. Problems continue in Orange County, from their senior health facility's uncertain future to questions about the building of a new government center. Up in Albany, as noted in an op ed on the opposite page, we're hearing calls for term limits... from the left!

And Washington? All everyone's talking about are scandals... about the IRS questioning political organizations claiming to be social welfare agencies, or the way the truth got battled over in a 72-hour period following a faraway tragedy last September.

It makes one look back with fondness at the good old days of the Cold War, or the beginning acts of the War on Terror.

The only "scandal" really interesting us of late, albeit without knowing all the facts, is the one involving DOJ seizure of notes and other materials from members of the press. And not so much because we think the fourth estate was being targeted for political reasons. We just feel whatever happened reeks of disrespect... and that disrespect is not new to the present situation. It's there in the ways most politicians speak of reporters and editors these days, a heritage that started in the Nixon era, gained traction during the Bush years, and has now seeped into life so deeply that when a candidate was asked, after our own local school board elections last week, his immediate reaction was to blame the press.

Seems we still have a role, though, just reporting the reasoning behind votes, and the bare facts among those running to represent.... us, including the context for such races.

And yes, there are good initiatives out there... the Cuomo push to center economic development on SUNY campuses is laudable, although how that pushes extension of such campuses into satellites into wide areas of the state without higher education remains to be seen. The new "PayGoNY" push by the New York State County Executives Association seems strong in its goal to help all our municipalities face the future together, sharing strength... although we worry at the ways in which Ulster County's Executive, the omnivorous Mike Hein, is already using the initiative to trumpet his name statewide the way he's done hereabouts.

A lot to mull, altogether... and to help you digest, from our perspective.