Running against Peter DeFazio, Art Robinson brings the crazy
![Running against Peter DeFazio, Art Robinson brings the crazy](/media/uploads/blog_images/2010/07/artrobinson.jpg)
Art Robinson, GOP nominee in OR-4
By J. Graber of Portland, Oregon. He is a former journalist and a graduate student in strategic communications at the University of Oregon, Portland campus.
Maybe the reason you never see any coverage about the race for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District is because everyone in the fourth estate thinks the outcome is a foregone conclusion. I mean Peter DeFazio has held the seat since 1987 and took 82 percent of the vote in his 2008 election.
Or maybe they feel Art Robinson’s pseudo-scientific and sometimes self-serving rhetoric makes him less than a viable candidate.
Who knows? But betting on politics has always been about as safe as investing in a toll-booth factory in Vancouver these days.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at who these two men are.
Robinson is the President of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine and one of the primary authors of a petition claiming global warming is bogus and that carbon dioxide is actually good for us. The exact wording of the petition reads:
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
In the meantime Robinson also publishes the Access to Energy newsletter, which champions deregulating the energy industry and published the following argument for dumping man-made waste into the ocean in 2004:
Wastes dumped into the deep ocean will soon reach the bottom, where they are less hazardous than nearly any other place on Earth. Most materials will remain there: marine organisms are rare in the deep ocean, food chains are long, and few materials will be carried back to mankind.
And despite having been a chemistry professor at the University of California San Diego, Robinson calls public education “socialism in education” … on the Web site hawking his home-school curriculum for $195 and up.
Copies of his multi-media package on how to survive are also available for $149.
He also proposes to “defund all pork barrel and earmark projects” in the federal budget – a tall order for a would be junior congressman, eh?
Finally, he proposes lowering health care costs by undoing recent health care reforms granting 30 million Americans who otherwise would be left out access to medical insurance, and increasing the insurance companies’ ability to wiggle out of providing the very service for which they were created by reducing their exposure risk to lawsuits.
DeFazio, on the other hand, opposed Bush’s cuts to financial aid in 2005 and supported the 2007 College Cost Reduction Act that increased federal student aid by $20 billion.
He also supported the historic health care reform signed into law earlier this year that is expected to put an additional 16 million people on the Medicaid rolls, subsidize private coverage for those who cannot afford it, and regulate private insurance companies more closely, eliminating practices like denying benefits for pre-existing conditions.
DeFazio also proposes thinning national forests by the 6 billion feet board recommended by the U.S. Forest Service, providing jobs and material for renewable energy as well as reduce federal timber revenue payments to counties.
He voted against deregulating the cable television industry in 1996, has been a long-time opponent of the North American Free Trade agreement, helped draft legislation that $2.7 billion for transportation projects in Oregon in 2005, and went against his party in opposing last year’s “$700 billion bailout bill that puts taxpayers on the hook for the mistakes of Wall Street executives and CEO's.”
So there is a little insight into the two men who want to represent Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. You decide who would better serve the public good … now where did I put that number to my stock broker?
July 28, 2010
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11:31 a.m.
Jul 28, '10
This yo-yo is a great argument against "intelligent design" theocratic theory.
12:16 p.m.
Jul 28, '10
Yeah this guy is out there. Look at what he wrote about public education in his newsletter.
"Public education (tax-financed socialism) has become the most widespread and devastating form of child abuse and racism in the United States. Moreover, people who have been cut off at the knees by public education are so mentally handicapped that they cannot be responsible custodians of the energy technology base or other advanced accomplishments of our civilization. These ignorant people vote, and their votes are beginning to destroy our way of life. Can this problem be corrected? Yes. Can it be corrected by improving the public schools? No - only by abolishing them."
http://www.accesstoenergy.com/view/atearchive/s76a2289.htm
12:32 p.m.
Jul 28, '10
Abolishing public schools. That's a winning platform in Oregon.
4:09 p.m.
Jul 28, '10
Speaking of Republican crazies. They're all crazy this election season. And their agenda for the country is even crazier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4IQ_kj9eDM&feature=player_embedded
4:33 p.m.
Jul 28, '10
Isn't republican crazies (or crazy) kind of redundant?
8:52 a.m.
Jul 29, '10
This man would make Ron Paul and Joe Barton look somewhat sane. As I understand it, he hates puppies too.
1:36 p.m.
Sep 10, '10
Have you ever listened to Ron Paul? How could you think he is anything but sane? I advice you listen to this speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fHfdSi-GDo
Got me asking "What if... YOU wake up?"
11:09 p.m.
Aug 9, '10
This guy is a disturbing human being..
3:38 p.m.
Sep 4, '10
Art Robinson did not right that ocean dumping article. See below for some additional info.
http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/article_5767769c-780c-11df-a851-001cc4c002e0.html
7:24 p.m.
Sep 23, '10
I think the word you are looking for is, "write," not, "right."
Was the claim that a petition exposed, "human-caused global warming as a fraud," his? Does he read the pamphlets he sends out or is he a "delegator" in the Reagan mold?
1:51 p.m.
Oct 8, '10
he Eugene Register-Guard quoted the Albany Democrat Herald That the questions that Rachael Maddow asked Art Robinson were based upon writings made before Art Robinson took over as editor of his news letter. However here are some quotes that are much more recent.
Source: Art Robinson’s Access to Energy newsletter, January 2003.
Art Robinson: Nuclear waste best stored in foundation of homes
"While ocean dispersal would have long ago turned the radioactive waste disposal issue into a non-problem had pseudo environmentalism not intervened, the best place for that waste is in the concrete foundations and insulation of homes and buildings. Suitably diluted, radioactive substances in our homes would provide a hermetic radiation dose and significantly prolong our lives."
Source: Art Robinson’s Access to Energy newsletter, September 2003.
10:56 a.m.
Sep 7, '10
Scary to think that nuts like this have a chance at winning and that some will actually believe 'his science.'
9:40 a.m.
Sep 21, '10
Attended the Forum in Corvallis last night. Dr. Robinson is whacked, a loon. Had nothing substantive in any of his answers, just retoric.Congressman Defazio has been, is and will continue to be one of the best representatives for Oregonians!
1:50 p.m.
Oct 3, '10
Robinson is so nuts, he makes me look sane.