Well, since it's well known that God creaated the Earth some 6000 years ago, Sec'y Chu's psuedo-geological response just proves he doesn't have a clue.

Yeah, Barton stumped Chu all right.

"How do I politely answer this ignorant POS using single-syllable words that he'll understand?"

Holy what the fuck, batman!

If by "being stumped" you mean by cursorily explaining that there is oil in Alaska because A) oil is created in a very long geological process and B) tectonic activity moves, among other things, oil deposits around; without thinking that it is necessary to explain the principles of either point to an adult apparently without a legal guardian, yeah, Chu was "stumped."

AND NO IT IS NOT BECAUSE ALASKA WAS WARM, YOU FUCKING IDIOT.

*strangling motions*

I have this vague feeling that "RepJoeBarton" thinks that climate change might mean more oil magically appears. 'Cause, you know, it is warm. Oil is made of warm.

Yes, it is official, Rep. Barton is a twitter, or so it seemed (sic) to be that way.

This cat could not stump sheep, if he needed some bizarre instinctual animal loving.

Wait .... we've seen this look before. Perhaps not so localized a phenomena as first believed?

Joe Barton has engineering degrees from Texas A&M and Purdue. Sorry, Aggies and Boilermakers, your degrees just got downgraded.

Everytime a Republican speaks, I feel less safe.

Chu is the resident scientist. It seem that Barton is the resident horse's ass.

The look of smug ignorance on Barton's face was just astounding.

You sillies. Everybody knows oil comes from trees.

I'll be severely disappointed if this incident doesn't make its way into the Daily Show or Colbert.

Well at least the fundies haven't explicitly denounced plate tectonics, in contrast with evolution and climatic change.

I see from this site that the initial deposits of what would become oil were laid down 300-400 million years ago:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/non-renewable/oil.html

I see from this site that Alaska and Siberia weren't located near the Arctic circle during this time:
http://www.scotese.com/newpage3.htm

I see things haven't improved in Texas since 1960. A cousin of mine completed residency as a neuro-surgeon and decided to hang his shingle in Texas. He was absolutely embarrassed by the written test he had to take to gain a license. This man spent 4 years in the university and made ONE B. The rest 'As' NO GENTLEMAN Cees. He said he wasted his time in medical school, interning and doing a residency because he could have passed the test in the 8th grade. He would have been another Doogie Howzer! Explaining continental plates, pole shifts, plankton compressed over millenia to "good 'ol boys', is like whistling in a hurricane. I would love to know what Secretary Chu was thinking as the question was asked and how he had to answer. He looked as if he was trying to explain something to a child. with less success. They pay as much attention as they did in school. Of course when the only text is a bible you get strange science.

Definition of -er; American Heritage online dictionary:
SUFFIX: 1a. One that performs a specified action: swimmer. b. One that undergoes or is capable of undergoing a specified action: broiler. c. One that has: ten-pounder. d. One associated or involved with: banker. 2a. Native or resident of: New Yorker. b. One that is: foreigner.

Barton, twitter = twit.

The oil didn't [i]come from[/i] anywhere. Nature made it right there.

And yes, you smug, smirking self-satisfied ignoramus, the plates just drifted right up there. Drifting around is what they have been doing since the dawn of time.

Chu got his doctorate at Berkeley, then taught at Berkeley and directed the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Not quite sure how that makes him a "Stanford physicist", unless the author has a fetish for institutions of spoiled losers who get to drop classes after finals to inflate their GPAs, and which tends to act as a feeder school for underperforming government officials in Republican administrations.

Go Bears!

You can actually make George W. Bush look smart if you put him in a room with Joe Barton.

I'm sometimes ashamed to admit to folks that I live in Texas. We have sent so many fools to Washington. I apologize to all.

Joe Barton just applied for a Geology teaching job at MIT.

There may have been geological ages when it WAS warm at the latitudes that Alaska it at now. Not that Alaska was there then. And during those times, there were no humans much less human civilizations. Oh fuck it! I hate explaining things to idiots!

I don't think it's fair to ask a question when you already know the answer, but still that so-called perfesser shoulda known that oil comes from Texas.

The good Rep doesn't understand the difference between the USGS and the DOE.

My correspondence with his YouTube channel:

Greeting,

Let me initially remark that I do not know whether the owner of this channel (RepJoeBarton) is indeed a staff member of the represented congressman Barton or someone who unofficially posts videos on his behalf. In either case, I must add that the congressman's decorum in the video titled, "Energy Secretary puzzled by simple question," dating on April 22, 2009, was a juvenile attempt to disrespect the scientific panel testifying at the hearing.

First and foremost, the congressman should not have concluded his allotted time by nefariously throwing a germane question while leaving the questioner less than 6 seconds to response. Second, the headline in the video reads "Where does oil come from" while the congressman Barton asked "How did all the oil and gas get to Alaska and Arctic Ocean?" There are two distinct set of questions and the inline description embedded in the video does not justify such discrepancy. Perhaps, whoever made the video possesses a less than a stellar understanding of geological phenomena.

In response, Dr. Steven Chu, adequately answered such complex question by asserting that due to continental drift of plate tectonics, in this case the North American plate, which have been shifting throughout history [read: the last 600 million years] that ultimately positioned North America plate, ergo Alaska, in today's location. If I may invite your attention to take a look at the following animation so you'll have a better understanding of the waltz of the last half a billion years which has resulted in the geological positioning of today's continents:

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tecall1_4.avi

As you can see, Alaska and North America plates spent around 200+ million years in what is known today as South America or Brazil to be precise which answers congressman Barton's speculation of Alaska being "[...] lot warmer..." for it was located near the equator -- not that the warmer weather is/was the result of the formation of oil and gas. Subsequently, the last 250 million years, the plates did converge and ultimately diverge to the current position. As Dr Chu mentioned, the formation of oil and gas was a combination of millions of years of accumulation of marine animals and plants between 500 - 300 million years ago [question of how it was formed] and also movement of continental plates for the next 250 million years [question of how it got up in Alaska].

Which brings us to the last segment in which congressman Barton's sarcastic "piping" innuendo with regard to Dr Chu's response of plate tectonics movement was, least to say, disrespectful and condescending. Perhaps, congressman Barton, as an [Industrial] engineer himself who comes from an oil-rich state, should educate himself more properly on the issues he finds interested in.

Sincerely,

So let's see, this guys is

1) a congressman from Texas, God's own oil country

2) the ranking GOP member, and former Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee

3) the "House GOP's leading expert on energy policy" (Wall Street Journal, 10/02)

4) a former aide to Energy Secretary James B. Edwards

5) a former natural gas "decontrol consultant" (?) for Atlantic Richfield Oil and Gas Co

... and he doesn't know where oil comes from??!

The mind boggles.

Jed Clampett knows more about oil than Barton.

Texas -- where teh stupid goes to live.

I don't believe Chu was stumped, not one little bit. It would be near impossible to complete a geology degree and not learn this IMHO.

I don't mean to be an accentist, but why do so many republican idiots have to talk with that annoying Gomer Pyle drawl as they recite their foolishness? This is one of the most bothersome consequences of the republicans becoming the party of older, angry, uneducated evangelical white Christian men living in rural areas of the South.

Enough!

Not to defend Rep. Barton, but many of the petroleum source rocks in the Arctic Ocean date from the Jurassic to the Eocene (about 200 to 50 million years ago), and were formed at high latitudes in a much warmer climate.

Was Mike Pence separated at birth from Dan Quayle?

"It's like these people take pride in being ignorant!"

Ummmmm, had to focus for a moment but here we go: is there a chance.....even slight.....but a chance......someone with some guts (yeah that limits it already).....suggests maybe an iq exam before allowing anyone to become an gop thingy?
Ya know?
Some sort of filter to keep brain-dead people from speaking?
It would have to be a very wide filter of course or none would fit through but with the slim coating they maybe could.
........ you got it?
Duh!
Shut up!
Why do these people bother talking??

My god the mans a complete a**hat

Joe Barton is a fricking disgrace and the people of Texas should be ashamed that someone as ignorant represents them in our government.

We need to have a minimum competency level for people to occupy a seat in Congress. We can't have important decisions made by total numbskulls who haven't got a basic grasp of the science that they're denying.

Barton most likely had no idea what Chu meant by "plates", as evidenced by his chuckling over the word "drift" and his misinterpretation of Chu in thinking that it was the oil that drifted.

The Barton-type brain is severely limited in its capacity. It cannot conceive of the amount of time this planet has been in existence and the scope of the changes that have taken place in that time. I'm sure he would be baffled if shown the nautiloid fossils found imbedded in mountaintops in Wyoming. Yes, Joe, that actually was the ocean floor at one time.

Hmm, from 225 milllon years ago, Alaska has been north of the tropic of Cancer.
http://geology.com/pangea.htm