Crossposted at The Hemp Report and Booman Tribune.

This morning I got up to go to work like every weekday morning. I work an early AM shift, but I still check my email before I leave. This morning there was an email with this stunning subject line in my Vote Hemp and HIA Board in boxes "Fwd: White Plume home burned down today."

Alex White Plume on his back steps
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - Manderson, SD
AP Photo/Chet Brokaw

The email was from Tom Cook and he writes:

A fire in the Vice Presidential Ceremonial office was reported to be under control. While initial reports attributed the blaze to electrical or communications equipment, unnamed insiders told a different story.

"The Vice President and his advisors were in the office, planning the next 5 years of the Bush Presidency, when Satan showed up to collect the Vice President's soul.", said the source. "Satan produced a document that clearly showed that the VP had signed over his soul in exchange for 5 draft deferments, survival through a number of heart attacks, a shredding of the Bill of Rights, and ascension to being the behind the scenes de facto President of the United States. The VP muttered something about 'A deal being a deal' and ushered the Devil over to the historic view of Washington through the show window of the office. He then cold cocked the the fallen angel and strangled him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom that happened to be handy. The VP then dragged the body into a utility closet, doused it with some white lightning that he knew the President kept stashed there, and burned the evidence."

"I don't know why he had to do that.", said the aide, "It's not like he was going to miss his soul anyway."

Calling the White House comment line today I was met with an unusually unprofessional response.

Seems that more than a few have called the White House to comment on the fire in Cheney's offices - relating the event to destruction of evidence.........

"You're hardly the first person today....." <click>

But how sad is it when there are SO MANY people reacting in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, when one's first reaction is that "Cheney's destroying MORE evidence?

How sad is it when you EXPECT the President and members of his Administration to do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to cover their own tails - to the exclusion of obeying the law and all else?

This afternoon, the White House confirmed that a quickly contained blaze isolated to a storage room utility closet on the third floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office building destroyed the following records:

Thick black smoke billowed from a fire Wednesday on the White House compound in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The blaze appeared to be located in Vice President Dick Cheney's suite of ceremonial offices on the second floor of the building.

Here are the top ten probable causes of the fire.

Most of these are from wadenelson1 at the Huffington Post, but I edited and added a few.

...the shredders overheated.

...the stairway to Hell was left open.

....a spark from his robotics caught fire.

....someone's head exploded after a briefing on Cheney's justification for going to war with Iran.

....the smoldering ashes of the Constitution caught the curtains on fire.

Any wagers on what secret documents this office may have contained?

As reported at MSNBC, smoke is billowing out of the Eisenhower Executive Office at the White House.  With the fire apparently centered on the second floor, let's take a look at who uses the Eisenhower Executive Office.

From Whitehouse.gov:

In addition to the Vice President's Office in the West Wing, the Vice President and his staff maintain a set of offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), which is located next to the West Wing on the White House premises. The Vice President's Office in the EEOB is called the Vice President's Ceremonial Office. This restored, historical office served as the Navy Secretary's Office when the EEOB housed the State, Navy and War Departments. Today, the Vice President uses the office for meetings and press interviews.

     Early reports that the fire at the  Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House began in an electrical closet have now been debunked.  

     An entirely different closet was involved.  The Vice-President has a large cermonial office in the building, with a huge closet, which was constructed in the hopes that his daughter Mary would reside there.   When that didn't work out, the Vice-President decided to use it as a wardrobe.  Several pairs of trousers burst into flame.

     The fire actually began in late January 2001, but took almost seven years to pierce the chamber's lead lining.

Hello friends,
In today's original Headzup cartoon, President Bush threatens to layoff 150,000 civilians at military bases unless the Democrats give him funding for Iraq without a timetable.

Happy Thanksgiving.

This is the view I had today of the fire in London some of you may have seen on the news. In the center of the picture is the Canary Wharf tower, the tallest building in London.

The fire started in a disused bus station on the site of the 2012 Olympics. It was apparently being used as a warehouse and was due to be demolished in the next month or so anyway. In terms of the Olympics, there will be no effect on the building program. It did not affect the nearby high speed rail line although a local service was temporarily suspended and there was some disruption to local bus services.

All in all a bit of a spectacular non-event but there was one immediate affect. An almost instant 30 point drop on the FTSE index on fears of a terrorist attack. Many stockbrokers have offices in the buildings in the picture as electronic trading mean that their dealing rooms are removed from a central floor like the NYSE.  The market recovered as soon as it was announced that it was a simple fire but this does point to a nervousness on the stock markets. I just wonder what the effect on both London and New York would be if (or when) Bush or his proxy Israel attacks Iran.

It's an overcast, coolish day here in Santa Barbara. Yesterday, I went with the Ski Club for a bike ride through the Santa Ynez Valley Wine Country. Rolling hills, meandering Angus, an occassional Bison or lama, hawks and kestrels looking for a bite to eat, and of course the grapevines.

Getting there we passed Lake Cachuma, our major source of water. It was terrifyingly low. So low we could see roadways, long ago flooded. Little rowboats marooned on dry ground, yards away from even the slightest hint of shore. Where does YOUR city get its water? How sustainable is it?

Now...onto Environmental News...to USE (below the parched fold)

As a senior chemical engineering major at the University of Delaware, I'm only to cognizant of the recent hubbub about the, shall we say, slightly over-zealous attempts by residence life staff to change students' ways of thinking.  It seems to me that the response to the whole thing has gotten a little bit out of hand.

Allow me to explain why.

My freshman year here, way back in 2004-2005, I was a fresh-faced 17-year-old, all gung-ho to be a good student and fit in at my new university.  I was going to be going to parties, hanging out with people, and in general having a good time.  Then classes began, and the reality of what college really is set in.  I had expected it to be something like high school, just with a bit more time in class and maybe a bit more work.

I was wrong.

Over the past couple of days, I've tracked the controversy at the University of Delaware.  In brief, they had a program of diversity "training" for their dormitory residents that many students alleged was nothing more than indoctrination and brainwashing.

And it was mandatory.  

Yesterday, after my diary was published, the school caved.

I wanted to share a few video clips from the wildfire hearing. I asked the question raised in Wednesday’s discussion about global warming expanding the areas at risk of wildfires, and what is being done to educate the public in those states.