WASHINGTON - The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm for House Republicans, certified 4th District candidate Art Robinson on Thursday as a serious threat to beat incumbent Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio.
Actually, the NRCC officially dubbed Robinson, who lost to DeFazio 54 percent to 43 percent in 2010, an "On the Radar" candidate. That is a step above his earlier status as "Young Gun," the campaign committee said.
“We are looking forward to working with Art Robinson, who has already proven himself by meeting rigorous benchmarks in the ‘Young Guns’ program that will position his campaign for victory,” NRCC chairman Rep. Pete Session, R-Tex., said in a statement.
WASHINGTON - The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm for House Republicans, certified 4th District candidate Art Robinson on Thursday as a serious threat to beat incumbent Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio.
Actually, the NRCC officially dubbed Robinson, who lost to DeFazio 54 percent to 43 percent in 2010, an "On the Radar" candidate. That is a step above his earlier status as "Young Gun," the campaign committee said.
“We are looking forward to working with Art Robinson, who has already proven himself by meeting rigorous benchmarks in the ‘Young Guns’ program that will position his campaign for victory,” NRCC chairman Rep. Pete Session, R-Tex., said in a statement.
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:59 pm Posts: 8008 Location: HQ Email/Website Hacking Dept, located in the basement of a Liberal-Socialist-Swine Ivory Tower
Occupation: College Instructor; Psychologist
Art can't beat Pete. He can't. Art is mentally ill and mean as a rattlesnake. No one respects Art; even most Repubs think he's nutters. Who Is Art Robinson?
Art is so combative and such an asshole that at one of the candidate forums in 2010, DeFazio said "He's a bully and a pathological liar", "You're mentally ill" to Art in front of an entire room of people. DURING the forum. Art had berated and bullied DeFazio for some time, and DeFazio just watched the guy deconstruct. DeFazio said this at one of the final forums because Art was having a temper tantrum, 2 year old style. Art was being more than absurd. (So absurd, the timber industry donated to a Dem for the first time ever.)
Art got 40% of the vote in 2010 even though he spent twice as much as DeFazio spent on the election. He won't get that much this time. DeFazio has been our rep for forever. Indys and moderate repubs will chose DeFazio. Art can whine all he wants about how liberal my district is, but in all reality, some of the more conservative counties in OR are in my district. My city is just big (comparatively) and liberal. But DeFazio would have to work to keep his job if a moderate and reasonable Repub stepped forward.
For those who don't remember Art, here's a glimpse:
Rachel Maddow Interviews Art Robinson Part 1:
Rachel Maddow Interviews Art Robinson Part 2:
Rachel Maddow Deconstructs her interview with Art Robinson the next day:
In the May primary, Or 4th CD voters had a choice for their Dem Representative. DeFazio or .... Art's 24 year old son. Matt Robinson, who had been the campaign director for Art's 2010 election ran as a "fake dem". Ya; even Repubs were disgusted by that move.
About 16 months ago, Art Robinson butted heads with Oregon State Univ. 3 of Robinson's children attend OSU; 2 of them are in the graduate program. Robinson was claiming that his children were being punished as "political retribution". Why would OSU engage in "political retribution" when Robinson lost? OSU didn't; the 2 Robinson grad students had been in grad school for 4.5 years and hadn’t progressed in a reasonable amount of time. The third Robinson child was at OSU for only 2 years at the time.
Robinson’s children are Joshua, Bethany and Matthew. Joshua and Bethany are twins, which explains why they have both been in grad school for the same amount of time. I have no idea why Art Robinson was claiming that Matthew was looking at being ousted from the U. Robinson didn't discuss Matthew’s academic situation.
So what happened? Why would OSU engage in "political retribution" when Robinson lost by a landslide?
In Fall term, 2011, Joshua Robinson completed his exams. Joshua barely passed his written exams; Joshua wasn’t progressing as he should have.
Quote:
He had taken a written qualifying exam for his Ph.D. program on Nov. 4, 2010. He wasn’t told the score but was told he had "conditionally passed" meaning he would have to take an oral exam as well.
Some on the oral exam committee didn’t agree that Joshua had passed the exam. The majority did.
As explained in the above letter, Joshua was supposed to gather a formal committee to work with AFTER completing his exams. A professor who was going to be on Joshua’s committee dropped out of his committee. Interestingly, Art Robinson finally explained that Reese, Joshua’s potential committee member who dropped off of the committee was in a DIFFERENT area of the engineering dept than Joshua was in. In my opinion, it makes complete sense for Reese to drop out of Joshua’s committee now that Joshua is moving onto his Ph.D thesis.
According to OSU,
Quote:
Committee structure is evaluated when your program of study is received by the Graduate School and when you schedule your formal examination(s).
So what happened? According to the first article in my post:
Quote:
Last month he took the oral before a faculty committee and passed, according to a Feb. 16 letter from Kathryn A. Higley, head of the nuclear engineering program.
Her Feb. 16 letter told him he must now constitute his graduate committee and file a new program of study by the end of winter quarter, March 18, “in order to progress in the program.
The letter also informed him he must:
Quote:
determine an area of scientific investigation commensurate with the experience and interests of your new adviser and committee.
Joshua told OSU that it was their responsibility to find him a new faculty adviser. According to Joshua, no one else was willing to be on his committee. The Univ is not required to find a committee member to work with Joshua.
So, Joshua didn’t do great on his exams and one of his committee members withdrew from working with him (before the committee was officially gathered). There are 14 faculty members in the NE program; one is on leave. Another is Dr. Higgenbothem, who “warned” the Robinson’s about OSU’s “plan” to kick out all of the Robinsons. Higgenbothem was looking at some disciplinary actions. Might Higgenbothem have had personal motives for stirring up shit between OSU and batshit crazy Art Robinson?
To sum up Joshua’s situation; Joshua didn’t do well on his exams and just received his Masters’ degree after 4.5 YEARS in his Ph.D program. One of his committee members has withdrawn from his committee. Joshua would have had 2.5 years to finish 3-5 years of work. Joshua would have never made the 7 year deadline to finish his degree. In addition, a faculty member who was facing disciplinary actions claimed that Joshua’s committee member (which wasn’t a formal committee yet) withdrew from Joshua’s committee as political payback. Huh?!
Why is Bethany Robinson looking at being ousted?
Bethany's faculty adviser was ousted from the college (Dr. Higgenbothem?). She was also told that she had fallen behind. According to Robinson, OSU told Bethany that she fell behind because she worked on her father's political campaign. I wonder who said that. Perhaps Dr. Higgenbothem?
Palmer, according to Robinson claimed Bethany didn’t keep up with her work because she took leave to campaign for her father. But Robinson said Bethany didn’t campaign for him and successfully completed her required doctoral work.
Well, Bethany was in commercials and youtube videos with her father and gave statements to the media about her dad. She appeared to be campaigning for her dad, IMO. According to the first link in this post, Bethany had been in the OSU Ph.D program for 4.5 years and has still NOT received her Masters’ degree; unlike her brother, she hadn't even taken her exams yet. She should have had that completed at least 2.5 years ago! The Univ didn’t give her her Masters' because she hasn’t earned it. Art Robinson wasn’t running for office 2 years ago, so I can’t see how his political activities could lead to her dismissal from her program.
According to OSU, a Masters’ degree requires the completion of 45 credits. OSU is on a quarter system, and a full-time student takes 9 (or more) credit hours per term. Grad students must take 3 credit hours per term or they will be ousted from the program unless given official leave. According to her brother, Bethany has been at OSU for 4.5 years. She must be a part-time student who hasn’t completed her course work as required. Because of OSU’s grad program enrollment requirements, if Bethany has been at OSU for 14 quarters (grad students can enroll for summer term, so it is possible that Bethany has been attending for up to 18 terms), she should have absolutely been finished Spring term 2010 (months before the election), unless she took approved leave, and that is assuming she was only enrolled at the minimum credit hours necessary to stay in the graduate school for every term!
Bethany either wasn't able to keep up with the 3 credit hours per term, or her grades were too low. According to her dad, Bethany had a high GPA, but who knows how Art is computing her GPA or if he is/was telling the truth.
According to OSU, students may take up to 7 years to complete their Masters’. However, I believe that most programs would tell you to leave if you aren’t completing your program while taking the minimum # of credits per term. I think that is exactly what is happening to Bethany. OSU is very clear in their graduate handbook, stating that they reserve the right to oust a student if the college determines that the student isn’t progressing as needed.
Quote:
Advanced-degree students (regularly, conditionally, and provisionally admitted) are expected to make satisfactory progress toward a specific academic degree. This includes maintaining a GPA of 3.00 or better for all courses taken as a graduate student and for courses included in the graduate program, meeting departmental or program requirements, and participating in a creative activity such as a thesis.
If a student is failing to make satisfactory progress toward an academic degree, as determined by the major department/program or the Graduate School, the student may be dismissed from the Graduate School.
To the claim that OSU was “stealing” Joshua’s graduate work. That isn’t true. A graduate student’s work belongs to the college, not the student. Even Art Robinson admitted this, although he claimed that Joshua’s work belongs to “the state” and “the taxpayers”. Certainly a student needs to be credited, but the rights to graduate work belong to the college. In addition, Joshua’s work wasn’t completed. He was experiencing what every graduate student experiences.
Quote:
For his graduate work at OSU, Joshua Robinson, under the guidance of his mentor Dr. Michael Hartman, constructed a prompt gamma neutron activation elemental analyzer that is attached to the OSU nuclear reactor, which serves as its source of neutrons.
This analyzer belongs to the graduate program, not to Joshua Robinson. The grad program paid for the analyzer!
Why was Matthew Robinson supposedly being ousted from OSU? Art Robinson didn’t say. All he said was that Dr. Higgenbothem, a faculty member who was being disciplined by the college, was claiming that there was a conspiracy to oust all of the Robinson children. Nothing more is said about Matthew.
This is my potential Congressional House Rep. If 2012 is anything like 2010, this election is going to be really vicious.
_________________ "I have a Ph.D in horribleness."Dr. Horrible of the Evil League of Evil "The birthers are particularly good at puting two and two together and coming up with aardvark."Pat Gund
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum
Login
Register
FAQ
