A little too quick on the draw there, Bill Hayden

There are conspirators within the Skylands Tea Party group that are allowing Freeholder George Graham to use the group's email list, mailing list, meetings, even the group's name, in order to conduct a political campaign.  This is in direct conflict with the organization's tax status and places the group in jeopardy, but these conspirators don't care about the Tea Party or its mission -- they care about George Graham.

When Freeholder Graham launched a vicious attack on the wife of a candidate for Assembly, photo-shopping the cancer-survivor's face in a very unflattering way, the Tea Party's own Bill Hayden had the attack posted to his Facebook page before the email even hit.  Either Hayden is clairvoyant or he is in on the deal.

Then there was this disgusting display.  Yep.  Hayden again.

https://www.facebook.com/whowhatwherewhen/videos/10208392022592286/

The fellow behind the urinating video above was one of the four people who attended Mark D. Quick's "rally" on Newton Green on February 25th.  Bill Hayden was another.

And it was Bill Hayden who snapped this picture of George Graham's nemesis, Bill Winkler (aka Wee Willy Winkler, Philly Bill Winkler, The Old Fat Quaker, The Fonz, Gail's Sweetheart, and so on) and Sussex County activist Harvey Roseff on Newton Green back in the autumn:

Wait a minute!  Why does Winkler get so many nicknames and Graham none?  Gail Phoebus and Kim Seelagy had one for George:  "Walk of Shame."  They gave him it after he got up to no good (in their words) down in A.C. at some League confab.  But "Walk of Shame" is too long, don't you think?  He needs something shorter and career-related, like "Freeloader."  Perfect!  Freeloader George Graham!

But we digress.  The photo Bill Hayden snapped above ended up in the rather vulgar post below:

So... it must be Bill Hayden again.  Unless Hayden gave the photo to George Graham and an elected member of the Sussex County Freeholder Board was up at night, in front of his computer, photo-shopping the heads of other Republicans onto vaginas?  Yeah, that sounds about right...

Something is wrong with George Graham.

On Tuesday night there was a wonderful exchange between Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Jay Parini, a professor, author, and poet.  Given the circumstances, they make the salutary point that "we all proceed on insufficient knowledge" and conclude that what is lacking in current political discourse is "modesty" and that we need to "teach modesty" and "inculcate a spirit of modesty" as a corrective.

Given what we've seen from the likes of Quick and Graham, maybe just teaching how not to be nuts would go a long way.

Assembly candidate Quick takes the low road

Assembly Candidate Mark Quick

There was a reason the members of the Skylands Tea Party threw Mark Quick out of their organization.  Quick talks violently and uses foul and pornographic language to describe anyone who happens to disagree with him.  The Skylands Tea Party got tired of it, so they voted to toss him from their meetings.

Somehow the new leaders of the group neglected to remember this and they've invited him back.  Possibly because Quick is running on a legislative ticket that includes Gail Phoebus and Morris County politician David Scapicchio. 

Quick is fond of posting threats likes these on Facebook:

We don't understand how Phoebus, who often adopts a proto-feminist line when dealing with male Republicans, ended up recruiting Quick to run on a ticket with her.  Quick certainly claims she did.  It will be a curious campaign, with Phoebus blaming all her troubles on "white male privilege" while Quick contents himself with the kind of language featured below:

Yes, he is a candidate for public office.  Sigh.

Stay tuned...

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.

Now they're attacking Garrett for the gas tax

The anger-driven, screw-them-all cacophony of the Tea Party is now costing embattled conservative Republican Congressman Scott Garrett votes.

Facebook post:  "Didn't Garrett support the gas tax?  Really hurts Sussex County residents."

How misinformed!  But these are the kinds of conclusions drawn when you are functioning on high-octane hate.  Facts don't matter.  All that matters is rage and targets for that rage.

Scott Garrett is a Sussex County native who has represented New Jersey’s fifth congressional district since 2003.  This year, he’s locked in the most difficult race he's ever faced.  Garrett is an unabashed social conservative with an almost perfect conservative voting record.

The American Conservative Union rated him 100 percent last year. His lifetime ACU rating is 99.38.  Garrett is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and has the support of the Club for Growth.

Still, many in the Tea Party find him suspect because he didn't rise from their ranks and his politics predates 2009 -- Year Zero for the Tea Party.  Unlike many Tea Party leaders, Congressman Garrett is an old-fashioned conservative gentleman who eschews the kind of foul-language on display from Tea Party Facebook warriors and at Tea Party rallies.  He is definitely out of step with the movement's manner of communicating. 

This has earned Garrett problems from the Tea Party in the past.  He was challenged in a Republican primary by a Tea Party member who will be playing a big part at the October 22nd Rally on Newton Green.  Despite his 99.38 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, that Tea Party leader described Garrett as a far-left liberal.  Violence and threats have been directed at the Congressman's office.

In the past, the Tea Party has often let their emotions get the better of them.  At times, they behave as if they are disconnected from our shared reality, rejecting fact for feeling.  Too often, violence is on their lips.  They fail to forgive long time allies and friends, and instead heap the most vicious invective on them.  Here is a chilling post, by a Tea Party leader from Sussex County, that expresses the kind of desires that can grow when you fail to keep hold of your humanity, humility, and common decency:

"All 545 sitting in DC right now are guilty of treason. And all those living who have sat over the past 2 decades, since the signing of NAFTA are, too. That is our reality, they should all be indicted, dragged out in chains, the evidence a matter of congressional record and unimpeachable. And all should be subject to all the consequences the law provides up to the firing squad."

What this Tea Party leader is describing is a lynching.  Let's hope that's not what happens on the 22nd.  People don't need any more reasons to vote for our mutual opponents.

Bill Spadea... you have a lot to answer for.

In July 2008, gas hit $4 a gal, what happened?

Remember the mass starvation that occurred?  The displaced masses?  Thousands died.

No.  That's right, it didn't happen.  And it didn't happen in October of 2012, when the price per gallon again flirted with the $4 mark.  And it won't happen when the price per gallon goes to $2.15 cents, due to the 23 cents per gallon tax increase.

Despite what the petroleum lobby (AFP) and the foul-mouthed followers of the Tea Party tell you, it won't be the end of the world.  In fact, the roads and bridges that had to be closed because there was no money to repair them will now get done, and the world will run a little smoother.

The $8 million dollars in road repaving money promised by the state TTF to Sussex County will now be sent.  That means the county won't have to raise our property taxes next year by $100 to cover that $8 million.  A 105-year-old bridge in Byram will be replaced.  Dozens of other projects in townships and boroughs that would have been paid for by increases in local property taxes will now be funded by the increase in the gas tax.

In New Jersey, the killer tax isn't the user tax on gasoline and diesel, it is property taxes levied by county and local governments and school boards.  New Jersey has the highest property taxes in America and because of it, we have the highest foreclosure rate too.  It is foreclosure that is the breaker of families and the bringer of misery.   

All the energy brought to stop a tax increase was aimed at the wrong tax.  The gas tax hadn't been raised -- not even adjusted for inflation -- for 28 years. 

28 years ago, what did your property tax bill look like?  What is it today?  Did you pay more every year?  Didn't it just go up again this year?

The petroleum lobbyists at Americans for Prosperity ignored the very real property tax/ foreclosure problem and instead focused our attention on the gas tax because that is a tax on the product they sell.  We can at least understand that.

But the Tea Party doesn't have that excuse.  Led by a foul-mouthed national candidate and populated with a legion of rude, foul-mouthed Facebook warriors, the Tea Party is not someone your Mom would let date your little sister.  They are just in it for someone to hate.  It's the anger not the reason that matters.

Some examples:

An X-rated Tea Partier...

After announcing his intent to run as the Tea Party candidate for State Senate against Republican Steve Oroho, Kevin Mazzoti talks Trump to a voter:

 Kevin Mazzoti I'm disappointed in you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Who do you think you are? Are you the one sucking xxxxx off?

An Obama supporting Tea Partier...

A Facebook exchange between Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano and a constituent:

CONSTITUENT:  Don't talk conservative when you brag about voting for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama Mayor.

Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano: Yup cause I vote best candidate at the time not by party.

A two-faced Tea Party "hero"...

As a Freeholder, Gail Phoebus lobbied the Legislature to pass the gas tax to fund the TTF, then lied about it as a candidate, and voted against what she had lobbied for as an Assemblyperson. (Sussex County Freeholder Minutes, November 25, 2014)

A lost Tea Partier on Facebook...

Someone who lives hours outside the district, makes his obligatory threats:

I have been a life long member of the Republican Party.
Now I look forward to repaying you this favor at the ballot box in November.

A flip-flopping Tea Party "king"...

Assemblyman Jay Webber lectured other legislators on the importance of adopting a tax restructuring plan that included an increase in the gas tax and the phase out of the estate tax  -- then turned around and joined Marxists in attacking the plan he told others to support. (Star-Ledger op-ed by Jay Webber, October 14, 2014)

A Tea Partier melts down on Facebook...

At this time, I want you to know that I am going to be spending all my time and energy (outside of working hours) campaigning, writing, and calling everyone I know to VOTE YOU ALL OUT!!! (and it doesn’t matter if you are not in my district). Not one incumbent should be re-elected.

...The burden of the transportation infrastructure costs will now be carried EXCLUSIVELY by the people who travel to work every day.

Yes, by everyone who drives.  It is supposed to be.  It is a user tax -- the fairest form of taxation, according to Ronald Reagan.  Remember him?

...let me remind you that the roads and bridges are used by delivery people, EMT/Rescue personnel, fire trucks, mail delivery vehicles, package delivery, food delivery, telephone and utility (gas/electric) personnel, doctors and nurses who go to work, x-ray and medical technicians, teachers, etc. Now, remember, that people who do not drive utilize these services every day. Are they paying for the transportation costs? NO because they do not drive. The burden of the transportation funding needs to be carried by every citizen of this state.

In other words, New Jersey property taxpayers should subsidize the out-of-state drivers who use our roads.  By-the-way, 30% of those who use our roads are out-of-state drivers.  Wow...