Much like there are no longer political scandals, there are only -gates (ClimateGate, MonicaGate, Georgebushdoesn'tlikeblackpeopleGate), there are no longer conspiracy theorists. There are Truthers.
The Watergate of the truther movement (that is, the movement to call conspiracy theorists "truthers") is the 9/11 Truth movement, which fabulously claims that the 9/11 terror attacks were orchestrated by the government to justify an invasion of the Middle East. (Notable Truthers include failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, Jesse "The Truther" Ventura, and Charlie "Two and a Half Towers" Sheen.)
Now we have the BP Truthers, who claim that the oil spill in the Gulf was a setup by the Obama administration to allow them to back pedal on promises for off-shore drilling. First put forth by human oil spill Rush Limbaugh, the theory really started catching some media attention when it repeated by... wait for it... if you haven't heard already this might make you do a spit take if you have water in your mouth so swallow anything before continuing... Mike "Heckuva Job" Brown.
Yes, that is Mike Brown, Director of FEMA under Bush during Hurricane Katrina, the agency that failed harder than any government agency has failed before, the agency that should just change its acronym to FAIL, criticizing the government's response to a disaster. Just roll that around in your mouth for a minute. It's like a fine wine, with strong scents of irony and frustration. Sharing in that frustration is White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who comes up just short of leaving the podium to go into the audience after this reporter like Ron Artest:
The BP Truth movement has all the makings of a great conspiracy theory: there's just enough there that, if you want it to be true bad enough, if you squint hard enough, you can make it make sense. Sure, the only objection to off-shore oil drilling is the potential environmental impact, so obviously you would RUIN THE ENVIRONMENT to make that point about the potential to ruin the environment. Duh.
Oh, and here's some real Truth for you: this never would have happened in other countries because they use an emergency shut-off valve for their oil wells that is not mandated in the US. Why isn't it mandated? Because Dick Cheney's super-secret energy cabal (remember that?) decided they didn't want to make oil companies pay for it. And! And! When all is said and done, the entity that may be most responsible for the oil rig explosion? Halliburton.
Shit, I'm getting pretty good at this Truther thing.
