From World Net Daily(not the tabloid site World News Daily), with h/t to Green Hell Blog, something that if proven is quite disturbing. Yet given the kind of treatment I’ve recently received at the hands of an eco-zealot who can’t tolerate my views on climate, I’m not surprised.
Some people have no scruples and no shame. – Anthony
Democrats attack Republican candidate’s children
By Art Robinson
In an effort to do my part in rescuing our country from the out-of-control Obama administration, last year I ran for Congress in Oregon’s 4th District against 12-term incumbent, far-left Democrat Peter DeFazio, co-founder of the House Progressive Caucus.
Although I won the nominations of the Republican, Independent and Constitution Parties and the endorsement of the Libertarian Party, a massive media smear campaign by DeFazio, paid for with money raised by MoveOn.org and from special interests favored by DeFazio in Washington, resulted in a 54.5 percent to 43.6 percent victory for DeFazio in a race that was expected to be much closer.
Although I had never run for public office before, I immediately announced my candidacy for Congress again in 2012.
However, when you take a stand for what’s right, sometimes there is retribution.On Nov. 4, 2010, as soon as the election results were in and they were sure their candidate had won, faculty administrators at Oregon State University gave new meaning to the term “political payback.”
They initiated an attack on my three children – Joshua, Bethany and Matthew – for the purpose of throwing them all out of the OSU graduate school, despite their outstanding academic and research accomplishments. OSU is a liberal socialist Democrat stronghold in Oregon that received a reported $27 million in earmark funding from my opponent, Peter DeFazio, and his Democrat colleagues during the last legislative session.
Read full story here: Democrats attack Republican candidate’s children
UPDATE: I decided to pull the direct link to the website that hurled unspeakable insults to me by an eco-zealot, they don’t deserve the traffic WUWT will generate for them. Such things are best handled by other means. So, I used WebCite to permanently log the website, and you can view it here, scroll all the way to the bottom and note “corrections”: http://www.webcitation.org/5x0pgZdgl
UPDATE2: OSU has posted a statement which you can read here
Dr. Robinson seems to have posted his own web page on the issue as well and promises updates.
http://www.oregonstateoutrage.com/
So OSU issues a release refuting all claims and patting itself on the back with the usual yada, yada, yada.
So I guess OSU is saying the three are still active PHD candidates in good standing. Can’t have it both ways OSU.
Nobody has cared to explain why his children were removed, or forced out.
We don’t know Oregon State’s side of the story, we don’t know Robinson’s interpretation of Oregon’s State’s side of the story, we don’t even know if there even is a story.
walt man,
Are you going to dump your entire Favorites file on us?
I wrote the “OregonStateOutrage” website, and let them know regrefully until there is any 3rd party confirmation that the expultion(sp?) process is in place it would be impossible to advocate rationally on anyones behalf.
If true, the actions are deplorable. However, we currently have a “he said” without even a “she said” response — and we’ve all been fooled in the past. Though frankly, if this doesn’t pan out a true, Mr. Robinson’s political career will be over.
“… a level of aggression way out of proportion to the possibility of a small rise in energy prices…”
That is really good, Walt Man. Who writes your stuff anyway?
This is actually exactly like the universities in my experience.
I live in Saskatchewan and when the Government at the time wanted to merge school divisions into “super-divisions”, several people involved in education in my area started a very successful campaign to fight it.
One of them was just completing a PHD in education and was due to finish in a couple months. The university, and several professors who had help write the provinces new plan, tried to get his PHD work rejected. This was after it had already been accepted and approved, he had already recieved a letter stating the approval of his PHD.
He was too tenacious to walk away, but in the end they fought him for 3 years before they finally admitted defeat and granted his PHD.
Another person involved had his kids harrassed at the same university.
This is exactly the kind of petty, revengeful thinking as has been accused here and I can say without reserve that it very much does happen. I can’t comment on this case, but I have no problem in confirming for the skeptical people that it does very much happen. Many of these people would not pause for a second to ruin someones Career or future, to punish someone who disagrees with them.
to: ‘joan.stueve@oregonstate.edu’; ‘pres.office@oregonstate.edu’; ‘todd.simmons@oregonstate.edu’
re: Democrats Attack Republican Candidate’s Children – WorldNetDaily
The Whole World is Watching. If there is nothing to hide, hold a public hearing. Injustice cannot withstand the light of day.
So long as the matter is kept behind closed doors, the smell will not leave. A public airing is required.
The actions against Joshua, Bethany and Matthew Robinson and against Professor Jack Higginbotham have come to the attention of WUWT, the number 1 science blog on the planet.
If you want to see what WUWT can accomplish, look at what is happening to funding for climate science in Congress.
Should you wish to reply, WUWT is waiting:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/03/07/climate-ugliness-gets-personal/
Sue them. I’ll contribute.
Anthony – there is a limit to how much US republican party bullshit I can tolerate. You are obviously republican yourself. But not all climate skeptics are of this political persuasion. You also have a lot of international readers who sit completely outside the US political context and who tend not to see the world through US political filters.
Indeed I hate to tell you this, but outside of the US, most people regard the current crop of US republican politicians as borderline insane. They seem in complete denial of reality. In particular they fervently deny that failure to regulate financial markets in the Bush years lead to the global financial meltdown, which is the accepted reality in the rest of the world.
Instead they are apparently embarked on a campaign to blame … Unions … ??? … I don’t know quite how anyone could believe that, but there you go. The republican governor of Wisconsin is behaving like a rabid dog. Somebody should put him down before he bites someone.
Now why did I think he won that election? Brain fart.
“Ian H”
I don’t see this as Republican vs. Democrat and I am neither. I see this as more Global “Progressives” against common sense. The US Democrats are only the American delegation of the global “Progressives” of which there are many in different countries of the world. This is an issue that crosses national boundaries.
It could just as easily be about Labour aligned academics in the UK blackballing the children of a Conservative politician.
To Brad and the others who are confused about the academic status of Robinson’s children – that’s what you get for not reading the letter. It’s quite clear if you bother, and there’s no confusion.
To Ian H – that’s about what I expect from “tolerant liberals” – one-sided ideological economic ignorance and second-hand death threats. Bravo.
Smokey, thank you for the gracious apology. No problem, we all get excited and jump to conclusions sometimes.
Brad, I am sorry about the treatment you received in this thread. There was no actual evidence beyond the statement of one person that the students actually were expelled. I didn’t see your post, but I am assuming that you only shared what is public information anyway.
I am surprised that this blog, which just won an award and which I had respected, would have so many readers who accept as truth an angry article published by one apparently distraught parent, who had a similar issue with a different university in the past. There starts to be a pattern of being unable to jump through the requisite hoops to accomplish a long-term goal, seeing a conspiracy everywhere, and running to your friends to get them to gang up your perceived offender.
I am further disappointed to see the issue framed as a left/right political one. These things are always much more complicated than that. I was gently forced out of a graduate program at OSU myself, but it actually turned out quite well for me in the long run. OSU is not a bastion of vile socialists, neither is Art Robinson defined solely as a right-wing nut job. They both make valuable contributions to society. There isn’t much hope for our civilization if we all limit our thinking and disrespect people who we only assume disagree with us.
To be scientists, we need verifiable facts. In this case, they are not available to us. Let’s let Art Robinson and his kids work out their problems with OSU by themselves.
Please do follow up, Anthony. The story is incomplete to say the least. What are the grounds on which these graduate students are being dismissed? As for turning their existing work materials over to another student or an instructor, that’s frankly beyond belief. Surely that doesn’t happen in academia anywhere. If students leave, their work is lost, not stolen.
thefordprefect says:
Professor Phil Jones, the UEA scientist at the centre of the hacked email controversy, revealed in February he had been receiving two death threats a week and had contemplated suicide. “People said I should go and kill myself,” he said…. Professor Stephen Schneider, a climatologist based at Stanford University in California, whose name features in the UEA emails, says he has received “hundreds” of violently abusive emails since last November.
tfp, is that the same Phil Jones who practically stood up and cheered when he heard that John Daly had passed away? Excuse me if I don’t care about Jones’ pathetic crocodile tears. And “hacked” emails? Provide proof they were ‘hacked’! The gauntlet is down. It’s your credibility on the line.
And you’re quoting Steven Schneider? The same Steven Schneider who advised lying to promote AGW? That Steven Schneider, who according to you whines about having received hundreds of unfriendly emails since last November?
Got news for you, tfp. Steven Schneider died, IIRC, in July 2010.
Anthony – perhaps it is a badge of honour to be mentioned among the other names on Dumb and Dumber’s Beast posting. Your profile and accomplishments are getting attention! When AGWers are reduced to obscenities they are admitting defeat. There’ll be no hiding their decline.
Interesting how this item about Art Robinson and his children is polarizing responses, along AGW / skeptic lines. Only one of these sides considers Josh, Bethany and Matthew Robinson to be human beings.
Dear Ian H.
Indeed I hate to tell you this, but inside of the US, many people regard the current crop of European citizens as pitiable victims and will resist any further political attempts to alter our system of government to reflect yours.
Ian H says @March 7, 2011 at 4:40 pm:
Somebody should put him down before he bites someone.
That is threatening language.
I know Dr. Robinson personally and have met his children. He is extremely intelligent, forthright, and honest. His children are quite wonderful, also super smart, and exceedingly polite and deferential. They are a credit to their father and to the entire state.
I also know the OSU faculty involved. I am an OSU grad, as are my two children.
Dr. Robinson wrote the truth. That is his practice and history. The OSU Dept. of Nuclear Engineering is indeed engaging in a political jihad against his children, who have done nothing to warrant such treatment.
This is not the first time that OSU faculty and administrators have allowed their political biases to interfere with academic freedom, but perhaps the first time an entire family of students has been viciously slandered and threatened with expulsion.
The grievances aired publicly by their father may seem aggressive (to those who are not fathers themselves), but the public airing of this matter came only after four months of private efforts, including those of Prof. Jack Higginbotham, president of the OSU Faculty Senate, whose own career is now threatened.
By the way, WND’s home office is located in Cave Junction, Oregon, the same community where the Robinson’s live. It should be no surprise that neighbors communicate with one another. WND posted Dr. Robinson’s letter word-for-word, without spin or excess zeal.
I also know George Taylor personally, the former Oregon State Climatologist who was ousted from OSU at the behest of Governor Ted Kulongoski. Political slime-crawling by OSU faculty and administrators is standard behavior; I can cite numerous other instances.
Destroying the science careers of exemplary students for base political reasons is beyond the pale. OSU has sunk too low. Not only should the offending (and nepotistic) faculty of the OSU Dept. of Nuclear Engineering be fired, but so also should be Dr. Ed Ray, President of OSU.
Anthony,
The evil things done to these students and the unbelievably vicious things said about you are not primarily intended to harm the victims. They are intended for one main purpose: to frighten anyone else from joining with you in opposing this scam which has an evil ulterior motive. Witness the same thing in the 10:10 video: the ‘recidivists’ got no chance to ‘repent’: instead the supporters were plastered with blood and gore: “That’s what will happen to YOU if you step out of line!”
Unfortunately the main game here is not the honest scientific discourse seeking the truth about the climate, it is the hidden and evil goal of totalitarianism. Well each of us has to step up and be counted, which we see happening in the enormous amount of support in the comments in this thread. We who love truth are all standing together, most of the white hats under their own names – unlike the spammers! Let’s make sure the villains understand that their ratbaggery and dishonesty will end in their historic humiliation recorded in posterity for all time.
With the greatest admiration,
Ron House
Keith G says:
March 7, 2011 at 1:28 pm
No, no – while the claims that Anthony is in the clutches of Big Oil are patently false, the time he spends hanging around Stevenson screens suggests he’s connected to Mega Mercury. Similarly to Willy Sutton, Anthony (Quicksilver) Watts seeks out weather stations because that’s where the mercury is.
Dr. Dave says:
March 7, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Read Dr. Robinson’s article from SPPI a little over a year ago and then ask yourself if there isn’t sufficient motivation to attack his family:
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/how_govt_corrupts_sci.pdf
It’s not much of a stretch to imagine threatened liberal academics behaving badly.
Robinson’s article shows that he hates university scientists, especially if they have government contracts. The only word about this that we have is his.
We only have his word that his kids are in danger of being expelled. Maybe he is trying to scare OSU into giving his kids a quick PHD.
His petition on climate change posed as a National Academy of Sciences paper, and this deception got some people to sign the petition that normally would not have signed it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Petition
The article followed the identical style and format of a contribution to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a scientific journal,[6] even including a date of publication (“October 26”) and volume number (“Vol. 13: 149-164 1999”), but was not actu
ally a publication of the National Academy. Raymond Pierrehumbert, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Chicago, said that the article was “designed to be deceptive by giving people the impression that the article…is a reprint and has passed peer review.” Pierrehumbert also said the article was full of “half-truths”.[14] F. Sherwood Rowland, who was at the time foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, said that the Academy received numerous inquiries from researchers who “are wondering if someone is trying to hoodwink them.”[14]
At 5:34 PM on 7 March, olderwiser had written:
.
Having been familiar with Dr. Robinson’s writings since he took over Access to Energy from its founder, Dr. Petr Beckmann, in 1993, I find nothing in his presently cited WND article that is particularly “angry” or “distraught,” though Dr. Robinson is understandably concerned for the education, the research work, and the careers of his children.
Indeed, should he not be?
He is reaching out to the same thousands of colleagues, past readers, customers of his home education curriculum, and other like-minded individuals who had supported him in his 2010 congressional election campaign for such expressions of public concern as can be brought to bear upon the people who are perpetrating what clearly appears to be a vindictive injustice against the members of Dr. Robinson’s family.
I find nothing in his present publication at variance from his voice in persuasive prose on other subjects, and I see nothing either intrinsic to this appeal or in his past writings to suggest that Dr. Robinson is not an honest and straightforward reporter of the circumstances described.
If the administration of Oregon State University (OSU) had valid and defensible grounds for the measures taken against these three of Dr. Robinson’s children, I would think that they would not hesitate to articulate their reasons for this concerted attack upon them, if only putting forth some explanation of the institutional policies and procedures being implemented in these three separate cases being simultaneously brought to outcomes extremely adverse for the students concerned.
(What’s that old saw about how “Once is the thing itself, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action”?)