Barton, Fink; Inhofe, Insane.

Remember Congressmen Joe Barton? Last week when I wrote about Daylight Saving Time, I mentioned that the change in the dates for DST this year was signed into law as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The sponsor of that bill was Barton, a Texas Republican who received more campaign contributions from the oil industry than any other Congressional candidate. I also referred to him as a "climate change naysayer," after going back-and-forth with D-Jo about how to describe his views on the subject, since someone else had already grabbed anti-climate-change fundamentalist.

Al Gore testified in front of two environment-related House subcommittees yesterday. DailyKos linked to the Intersection blog, written by Chris Mooney (author of The Republican War On Science), which linked to video of Gore's testimony. Mooney points out that in order to give his testimony, Gore had to wade through "questions" and parliamentary tricks from committee member...wait for it...Joe Barton. But I'm sure Barton's concerns were solely based on wanting to make sure that the best, most truthful information possible was released to the American public.

And anyway, Barton was nothing compared to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, which is not surprising given some of Inhofe's previous climate-related pronouncements:

* Stated that global warming was "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state"
* Compared environmentalists' repeated warnings to Hitler's "Big Lie"
* Suggested that global warming might actually have a beneficial effect on human life
* Implied that the Weather Channel is somehow behind the global warming hoax, in order to improve its ratings

These, by the way, are all courtesy of Wikipedia's Inhofe pagem where you can also readd about Inhofe's views on gay rights, 9/11, and lots more. He's a pistol.

(Update: Scientific American has Gore's testimony, along with the text of Gore's nine-point plan for dealing with climate change.)