Farmstead workers blame Phoebus for firing

We have been asked to publish the story of five area residents who formerly worked for Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus at the country club she owns.  The former employees of the Farmstead Golf and Country Club contacted Watchdog.  One employee identified herself and forwarded a statement and the letter of dismissal from Farmstead.  This is an excerpt from that statement:

The former employees believed that their ages played a role in their firing.  They believe that the legislator's actions "speaks to her character."  Referring to Phoebus' firing of her legislative staff before Thanksgiving and to the further attempts to destroy their reputations and ability to earn an income to provide for their families, the statement notes that "this behavior with Gail Phoebus is nothing new.  She has been treating people badly for quite some time."

In response to the accusations that were posted and distributed about legislative staff by members of the Skylands Tea Party group, the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) this week issued a formal statement saying that EVERY accusation made against the innocent staff workers was wholly false and without any basis whatsoever.  In other words, it was all made up.  A fantasy designed to destroy the livelihoods of human beings, their spouses, and their children.

Nevertheless, in fairness to Assemblyperson Phoebus, we understand that there could be another side to this story.  We therefore offer to publish her response to this statement, unedited.

The Nazi camp and Andover Township

We recently had correspondence from a reader who drew our attention to the fact that it was a member of the local political establishment back in the 1930's, Newton lawyer William Dolan, who handled the land transaction that granted that American Nazi group control of the land that became Camp Nordland.  Now William Dolan was then the sitting State Senator of Sussex County, a Democrat, at a time when each county had one state senator. 

According to a scholar at the University of Michigan, " New Jersey Congressman J. Parnell Thomas, Republican of Sussex, noted that New Jersey State Senator William Dolan, a Democrat, had aided the Bund in buying Nordland and that the Democratic Township Committee of Andover had granted Nordland a liquor license." 

 

According to historian and author Warren Grover, Camp Nordland in Andover Township was incorporated in March 1937.  Fritz Kuhn, the American Fuehrer himself, was one of the eight trustees of Camp Nordland.  When the camp formally opened in July, State Senator Dolan was introduced by the American Nazi Bund's New Jersey Bundesleiter, and he greeted the "swastika waving" crowds. 

Dolan was a political enemy of Franklin's Alfred "Bike" Littell, who went on to take his place as State Senator and to serve as Senate President.  Littell, whose education at Princeton University had been interrupted for service in an artillery regiment in World War I, went to war against the American Nazis.   Alfred Littell was the father of Senator Bob Littell, father-in-law of NJ Republican Party Chairwoman Virginia Littell, and the grandfather of Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose.

Strangely enough, many years after Camp Nordland closed there was another incidence in Andover Township that brought to mind the municipality's former connection.  It happened during the summer of 2012 and was extensively covered  in the New Jersey Herald and by other media.

Somehow a Tea Party meeting was turned into showplace for the ideology of Maggie Rodden.  The meeting was hosted at the Farmstead Golf & Country Club and was supposed to address Tea Party concerns about something called Agenda 21.  It was the choice of speaker that was remarkable.

Shortly after her speech at the Farmstead, Maggie Rodden was booted from the Internet-radio outlet that hosted her.  Here is what a Rodden fellow-traveler had to say about it:

"Speaking of censorship, Dr. Rebecca Carley and Maggie Rodden both were recently fired from These Changing Timez Radio (Dr. Carley) and the Orion Radio Network (Maggie) for their 'Anti-Semitic' viewpoints. Kyle Hunt and Mike Sledge, broadcasters formerly on Oracle Broadcasting Network, were recently fired as well for their unabashed criticisms of international Jewry. As more and more people wake up to the Jewish agenda, the radio stations, internet hosting companies, social media outlets, and other sources of information suppressing free speech and/or refusing to address the supremacist nature of Judaism – and the organized Jewish crime network ruining our world - will become more and more marginalized and discredited. As we move into 2013, any outlet suppressing criticism of the Jews must be boycotted."

Rodden was a real piece of work and you would be surprised at the pushback some media got by calling her out.  Among other things, she referred to some notorious Canadian Nazis as "freedom fighters" and her radio program was a home to some very whacky anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers.  For her to give her swan song just yards away from the former Camp Nordland was kind of weird and creepy.