ROFLMAO – Hotel Mgr:

“We can’t wait for this to be  over, to tell you the truth,” he said in a sudden hush…

(Via Daily Mail)  Michelle Obama and three of her family  members are staying in a $8,350-per-night Beijing presidential suite, but  despite a 24-hour butler and other perks that come with the lodging, her  entourage has inconvenienced ‘pretty much everyone’ and made the hotel staff  ‘fed up,’ a well-placed hotel staffer has told MailOnline.
The sumptuous pad at the Westin Beijing  Chaoyang hotel – its website calls the room ‘an oasis of comfort –  is a 3,400-square-foot masterpiece including a private steam room, ‘corner sofas  with silk pillows,’ and in-room dining for six.
But the Obamas’ stay has already affected  staff and guests at the hotel, with the Westin front-desk veteran alleging that  Mrs. Obama’s mother Marian Robinson has been ‘barking at the staff since she  arrived.’
Government security forces from both  China  and the U.S. started Thursday to screen everyone who entered the  building,  including paying guests, setting up checkpoints that resemble those at airline  concourse entrances. (more…)

Nothing empowers aggressive action like telling the bully you’ll do nothing to stop him.

WASHINGTON – The White House said Wednesday that President Obama is not actively considering military force as an option in the crisis in Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said military action is “certainly not at the forefront of discussions” among the president and his top advisers, saying that Mr. Obama is looking instead at imposing further economic sanctions against Russian leaders for the takeover of Crimea.  “You can expect further costs to be imposed on Russia,” Mr. Carney said.  (link)

One hour later in Ukraine/Crimea: (more…)

Within the insurance industry:  Q1 (Jan-March) cost/expense/enrollment information is collected.  Q2 (April-June) calculations are made to costs (projections) for the following year.  In Q3 (July-Sept) those projections become “premium rates” and are presented to State Insurance regulators for review and notification.   In Q4 (Oct-Dec) the customer (YOU) are notified of the new rate.

What you are seeing now in Q1-2014 are the cost projections, the raw data, being collected and recording an astonishing reality.  And Insurance executives warning that based on current data collection – Q2’s calculations will necessarily skyrocket.

Trying to stop the publicity of this is why Obama DID THIS.  He’s trying to buy time by saying the feds will ramp up payments to insurance carriers – so please don’t tell people their rates are going up.  

WASHINGTON DC – Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.
The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.
The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past. (more…)

When historians look back on the Obama presidency one thing will be certain, his supporters, and those who voted for him, were oblivious idiots.    This latest discovery –THE GREG MEMO– shows after taking office President Obama penned an immediate executive order to essentially re-write the Freedom of Information Act – and grant the White House full review and edit authority of all records.

Transparency eh’ ?

WASHINGTON DC – It’s Sunshine Week, so perhaps some enterprising White House reporter will ask press secretary Jay Carney why President Obama rewrote the Freedom of Information Act without telling the rest of America.
The rewrite came in an April 15, 2009, memo from then-White House Counsel Greg Craig instructing the executive branch to let White House officials review any documents sought by FOIA requestors that involved “White House equities.”
That phrase is nowhere to be found in the FOIA, yet the Obama White House effectively amended the law to create a new exception to justify keeping public documents locked away from the public. (more…)

(UK Independent) The Libyan former prime minister Ali Zeidan fled last week after parliament voted him out of office.
A North Korean-flagged oil tanker, the Morning Glory, illegally picked up a cargo of crude from rebels in the east of the country and sailed safely away, despite a government minister’s threat that the vessel would be “turned into a pile of metal” if it left port: the Libyan navy blamed rough weather for its failure to stop the ship. Militias based in Misrata, western Libya, notorious for their violence and independence, have launched an offensive against the eastern rebels in what could be the opening shots in a civil war between western and eastern Libya.
Without a central government with any real power, Libya is falling apart. And this is happening almost three years after 19 March 2011 when the French air force stopped Mu’ammer Gaddafi’s counter-offensive to crush the uprising in Benghazi. Months later, his burnt-out tanks still lay by the road to the city. (more…)

It appears we’re not exceptional enough to have primary responsibility for maintenance of the internet…

WASHINGTON DC – U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.
Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.
The change would end the long-running contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based nonprofit group. That contract is set to expire next year but could be extended if the transition plan is not complete. (more…)

It’s all in there folks; all of the dots/signs you need to see while looking toward the horizon.  If you know what to look for this stuff is obvious.

I’ll fill in the historical framework after the article:

WASHINGTON DC – Insiders very close to House White House Press Secretary Jay Carney indicate that he’s on his way out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, The Mirror has learned. Carney has told people he’s leaving the White House soon.

In 2008, Carney became Director of Communications for Vice President Joe Biden. In 2011, he became the nation’s 29th press secretary, President Obama’s second, replacing Robert Gibbs. (more…)

It doesn’t take a tin foil hat to see how the FBI black-op’s investigation of CIA Director General Petraeus and his secret affair with Paula Broadwell was leveraged for sunlight avoidance.

WASHINGTON DC – American personnel on the ground in Benghazi the night of the 2012 terror attack are outraged after learning that the CIA’s inspector general never conducted an investigation into what happened — despite two CIA workers being killed in the attack and despite at least two complaints being filed by CIA employees.

Former Ambassador Chris Stevens, another State official and two ex-Navy SEALs working for the CIA were killed in that attack.
Many in the agency were told, or were under the impression, that an investigation was in the works, but that is not the case.
One person close to the issue told Fox News: “They should be doing an investigation to see what the chief of base in Benghazi and station chief in Tripoli did that night. If they did, they’d find out there were some major mistakes.” (more…)

The issue at hand is essentially the CIA covertly monitoring the Senate Intelligence Committee as the Senate investigated the CIA.     The problem stems from an obvious oversight issue where the CIA takes illegal action to monitor the Senate as they investigate.
However, there’s something more within the behavior of the people involved.  Dianne Feinstein is clearly outlining the CIA is violating the law.   As a consequence the CIA claim to be following instructions from the Obama administration and the White House.  That alone represents a big issue – However, the way CIA Director John Brennan is responding to the charges against his office are, well, somewhat troubling.

Brennan is acting, and speaking, as if he is untouchable.  It’s almost like he has a card up his sleeve; an unspoken leverage.    And when you think about how Brennan got to his CIA post, and his relationship with President Obama, alarm bells begin to ring.
Please forgive me for connecting the dots but I’m not going in this rabbit hole alone 😉
Remember, it was Brennan’s security firm who broke into the State Department passport files of Candidate Obama in 2008.   Watching him now respond to Feinstein one would take away he indeed holds a lever that allows him to feel “untouchable“.

WASHINGTON DC – The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: “I am not taking it lightly.”
She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she said that the CIA appears to have violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as various federal laws and a presidential executive order that prevents the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance. (more…)

I’ve been wondering why our latest FOIA request is hitting an unusually obtuse Miami-Dade School void…. Now, things begin to make a little more sense:

President and first lady go to Miami area for education event tomorrow, and had planned to stay for family weekend in south Florida.

— Steve Brusk (@stevebruskNews) March 6, 2014

As I’ve said before, numerous times, the political risk in the M-DSPD story is quite large. A single pesky unkempt thread capable of unraveling the story of a much larger systemic construct.

Update below (more…)