Exclusive–Trump: Select Committee Needed to Investigate Benghazi Scandal

Real estate magnate, television star, and conservative provocateur Donald Trump called on Speaker John Boehner to install a select committee to investigate the Benghazi scandal in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Tuesday morning.

“I think that’s good,” Trump said when asked if he thought there should be a select committee to investigate Benghazi. “It’s a good thing. It should be investigated. It was a catastrophic event. Certainly, they should get to the bottom of it.”

Trump is the latest political leader to call for a select committee to investigate Benghazi. In the House, 181 members – more than three quarters of the House GOP conference – have formally signed on to the push led by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA). Moreover, several members of the families of Benghazi victims recently called for a select committee in a letter to Boehner first reported by Breitbart News.

Proponents of a select committee say it would help organize five separate investigations into one effort, giving the investigation a more unified approach.

Boehner has resisted the push for a select committee, arguing the work of the separate congressional committees investigating the matter is sufficient. “The reason I haven’t called for a select committee yet is that I don’t think it’s risen to that level,” Boehner told Fox News in April of 2013. “I think the five committees that have jurisdiction over this matter are working closely together. They’re getting the job done.”

A spokesman for Boehner did not respond to a request for comment about Trump’s remarks.

Trump spoke to Breitbart from New Hampshire where he had just spoken to a crowd of about 300 at Saint Anselm College’s “Politics and Eggs” event, though he said the visit was “not at all” connected with the state’s role in presidential politics.

He also put to bed rumors that he may run for governor of New York against incumbent Democrat Andrew Cuomo. The Republican party in New York is “extremely weak and has no idea how to win,” Trump said in explaining his reticence.

As a party, Trump said Republicans should spend 2014 focused on Obamacare. “Obamacare is going to lead to a tremendous Republican victory in November. It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

“People are losing their doctors. They’re losing their plans, and when they get a plan, they’re paying much more money for it and it’s not nearly as good,” he continued. “These were all false statements he made – you keep your plan, you keep your doctor. So, Obamacare is going to be the big thing on the menu.”

Trump also dismissed conventional wisdom about the Tea Party losing power and influence. “I think that the Tea Party is doing absolutely fine,” Trump said. “They are tremendous people who want what’s good for the country. They have a great love of the United States and they want it to be taken care of. People should not underestimate the Tea Party. It would be a big mistake for them to do so.”

[H/T Breitbart]

Muslims To Christians: “O Christians: Convert to Islam and You Will Be Safe”

(Walid Shoebat) — When Muslim fighters entered the village of Maaloula, one of the oldest Christian villages in history, they made this proclamation:

O Christians: Convert to Islam and you will be safe.

Abu Sarkis, a leader in the National Defense Committees, told Al-Akhbar of what the Muslims said after this command was said:

Afterward, Christians were told that they had three options: convert to Islam, pay the jizya [a tribute for non-Muslims], or leave.

The Al-Qaeda Muslims who are attacking Christians in Syria, which to impose on the “Nazarenes” (this is what they call the Christians), this edict, cited by Abdul-Rahman ibn Ghanam:

They will not teach their children the Quran; they will not make a show of the Christian religion nor invite anyone to embrace it; that they will not prevent any of their kin from embracing Islam, if they so desire. That they will honor the Muslims and rise up in their assemblies when they wish to take their seats; that they will not imitate them in their dress, either in the cap, turban, sandals, or parting of the hair; they will not ride on saddles (cars in our time), or gird on swords; that they will not sell wine; that they will not shave the front of their heads; that they will keep to their own style of dress, wherever we may be; that they will wear girdles round their waists.

That they will not display the cross upon their churches or display their crosses or their sacred books in the streets of the Muslims; that they will not recite their services in a loud voice when a Muslim is present; that they will not take any slaves that have already been in the possession of Muslims […] and that if they violate any of the conditions of this agreement, then they forfeit their protection and the Muslims are at liberty to treat them as enemies and rebels.

[H/T Walid Shoebat]

Wall Street Adviser: Actual Unemployment is 37.2%, ‘Misery Index’ Worst in 40 years

Don’t believe the happy talk coming out of the White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the realunemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud.

In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.

Marotta, who recently advised those worried about an imploding economy to get a gun, said that the government isn’t being honest in how it calculates those out of the workforce or inflation, the two numbers used to get the Misery Index figure.

“The unemployment rate only describes people who are currently working or looking for work,” he said. That leaves out a ton more.

“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work. Policies that remove the barriers to employment, thus decreasing this number, are obviously beneficial,” he and colleague Megan Russell in their new investors note from their offices in Charlottesville, Va.

They added that “officially-reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work. A decrease is not necessarily beneficial; an increase is clearly detrimental.”

Then there is the Misery Index, which is a calculation based in inflation and unemployment, both numbers the duo say are underscored by the government. He said that the Index doesn’t properly calculate how Uncle Sam is propping up the economy with bond purchases and other actions.

“These tricks, along with a host of other dubious accounting schemes, underreport inflation by about 3 percent,” they wrote, adding that the official inflation rate is just 1.24 percent.

“Today, the Misery Index would be 7.54 using official numbers,” they wrote. But if calculations tabulating the full national unemployment including discouraged workers, which is 10.2 percent, and the historical method of calculating inflation, which is now 4.5 percent, ‘the current misery index is closer to 14.7, worse even than during the Ford administration.”

[H/T Washington Examiner]