Fodder for Conspiracy Theorists

I've become less inclined in the last few years to give much credence to conspiracy theories. My thinking is basically Occam's Razor: The simplest explanations for all the crazy shit that goes on don't really need to resort to conspiracies, viz, Iraq wasn't really a conspiracy so much the result of a bunch of folks who all thought alike and were in positions of power.

All that said, um, I'd like to see this one explained:

WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.

As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

"I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack," DeFazio says.

Homeland Security Committee staffers told his office that the White House initially approved his request, but it was later quashed. DeFazio doesn't know who did it or why.

"We're talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America," DeFazio says. "I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee."

Maybe this is just a case of the Bush Administration being dicks for the sake of being dicks, as the Blue Oregon post I stole this link from suggests.

More likely, I think, is that whatever's in the document is probably based on their crazy theory of the unitary executive - you know, the normal kind of Bush insane we've all come to expect.