Friday, August 31, 2012

New Vatican Initiative for the New Evangelization in the United States

August 30, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer

In Fall 2012, the Vatican will launch a major global evangelization initiative for the digital world.

Called aleteia – Seekers of the Truth!, the project has been developed by the Foundation for Evangelization in the Media, under the patronage of both thePontifical Council for Social Communications and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

A collaborative platform, aleteia is an effort to reach millions—especially youth—by transmitting the Faith on the information superhighway. The organization intends to become the premier Christian social media network on the web, by gathering together partners, media and individuals (members, contributors and experts) who will share in the large evangelization outreach both on-line and in the world. To reach the greatest number of people, aletia’s content will be published in six languages.

In addition to the sponsorship support from the Pontifical Councils for Social Communications and for the New Evangelization, aleteia has also earned acclaim from the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” and from the Pontifical Council for Culture. Cardinal Robert Sarah, President of “Cor Unum,” in a letter dated May 9, 2012, wrote:

Through the traditional media and the Internet, you wish to make known the evangelical testimonies of charity that show how the Church’s many activities at the service of man are rooted in the experience of the Christian faith. The project will then highlight the close link between faith and charity, and thereby promote evangelization through the great charitable work of the Church, in the spirit of the encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, noted that the multimedia project continues the success of the Courtyard of the Gentiles, and

“…allows the Courtyard to go beyond its boundaries to share with the world issues and topics that affect all those who are ‘seekers of truth’ as your logo itself defines them.”

aleteia.org promises to provide:

RELIABILITY: Thoroughly researched, documented and readily available Catholic teachings and answers (pearls) on the most pressing faith, moral and/or social issues of the day.
IMPACT: Information presented in a way that has real impact in the public debate and therefore helps to shape our current culture; and
CONVENIENCE: The Christian universe is enormous, with a seemingly endless number of sites, blogs and websites. Through partnerships with the top content providers, aleteia.org is the one-stop shop for those seeking the truth.

Here in the United States, the organization will be hiring five persons who will work together to advance the New Evangelization, working in offices based in Washington D.C.

aleteia.org is in search of Partners to contribute to its worldwide Catholic network, sharing faith resources for those seeking Truth. Individuals and organizations interested in contributing should visit their website at partners.aleteia.org to learn more.

Announcement of the global initiative—slated for launch by theVatican in late September—will be made at the International Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show. OpusFidelis is the communication agency selected to help launch this global initiative here in the U.S., with a presentation of the new project at the CMN dinner on August 30.

Source.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s Prayer at the Republican National Convention

Published on Aug 31, 2012 by Awestruck CatholicSocialNetwork

"With firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, let us pray.

Almighty God, Father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, we beg Your continued blessings on this sanctuary of freedom and on all those who proudly call America home. We ask Your benediction on those yet to be born and on those who are about to see You at the end of this life. Bless those families whose ancestors arrived on these shores generations ago, as well as those families who have come recently to build a better future while weaving their lives into the rich tapestry of America.

We lift up to Your loving care those afflicted by the recent storms, drought, and fire. We ask for the grace to stand in solidarity with all those who suffer. May we strive to include Your tired, Your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free in the production and prosperity of a people so richly blessed.

Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask Your guidance for those who govern us, and on those who would govern us, the President and Vice-President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, and on all those who seek the common good by seeking public office, especially Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan. Make them all worthy to serve You by serving our country. And help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself.

Almighty God, Who gives us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, we thank You as well for the singular gift of liberty. Renew in all of our people the respect for religious freedom and fulfill that first, most cherished freedom. Make us truly free by tethering freedom to truth and ordering freedom to goodness. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love - prudently and with justice - courageously, in a spirit of moderation.

Enkindle in our hearts a new sense of responsibility to freedom's cause, and make us ever grateful for all those who for more than two centuries have given their lives in freedom's defense. We commend their noble souls to Your eternal care as even now we beg Your mighty hand upon our beloved men and women in uniform.

May we know the truth of Your Creation, respecting the laws of nature and of nature's God, and not seek to replace them with idols of our own making. Give us the good sense not to cast aside the boundaries of righteous living You first enscribed in our hearts before enscribing them on tablets of stone. May You mend our every flaw, confirming our soul in self-control, our liberty in law.

We pray for all those who seek honest labor as we thank You for the Spirit of generosity to those in need with which You so richly bless this nation.

We beseech Your blessing on all those who depart from here this evening, and on all those in every land who seek to conduct their lives in freedom.

Most of all, Almighty God, we thank You for the great gift of our beloved country, for we are indeed one nation, under God, and in God we trust.

Dear God, bless America - You who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen."

..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

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Note: Jesus' name not mentioned at end of prayer.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

John 14: 13,14.

John 14:13-14

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Fed to Crash Markets Before Launching QE3

Posted by Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul on Aug 29, 2012

Desperate to print Wiemar-style to fight off the most viscous Kondratiev Winter on record, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may not satisfy ‘inflation trade’ onlookers at the close of his Jackson Hole speech scheduled Friday. He may, instead, merely allow months of anticipatory front-running of stocks do the work of propping up asset prices for him.

And if investors don’t get the ‘all-systems go’ at Jackson Hole, there’s always the FOMC meeting of Sept. 12 & 13 to get the good news. That’s when market volatility could move off the charts, maybe extreme volatility to the downside, according some Wall Street analysts.

“With the equity market pricing in a significant chance of QE3, stock prices are no longer as useful a signal to Fed officials. Should the Fed disappoint at its September policy meeting, the risk of a stock sell-off is high,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts wrote in a note to clients, Aug. 21.

Nouriel Roubini - Linda Wertheimer interview - August 12, 2012

Published on Aug 13, 2012 by NourielRoubiniChanne

For more ;
http://nourielroubini.blogspot.com

Clint Eastwood RNC speech

By POLITICO STAFF | 8/30/12 11:10 PM EDT

All right. I started, you finish it. Go ahead.

AUDIENCE: Make my day!

EASTWOOD: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Isaac: Significant flooding, power outages on Gulf Coast PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO

August 31, 2012 8:28 AM

PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO

Last Updated 9:57 a.m. ET

(CBS/AP) NEW ORLEANS - The storm that was Hurricane Isaac - and which is now a tropical depression - swirled into the central U.S. Friday, leaving behind a darkened, soggy mess in Louisiana. Neighborhoods were underwater, and even homes that stayed dry didn't have lights, air conditioning or clean water.

Read more

Quake of 7.6 magnitude strikes off Philippines: USGS

By Rosemarie Francisco

MANILA | Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:19am EDT

(Reuters) - An earthquake of 7.6 magnitude struck off the Philippines on Friday destroying roads and bridges and sending people fleeing to higher ground in fear of a tsunami.

The quake was centered off the east coast, 91 miles off the town of Guiuan in Samar province at a depth of about 20 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for much of the region, but later scaled it back leaving it in place for the Philippines and Indonesia.

"People are fleeing to higher ground," Samar congressman, Ben Evardone, told local radio.

A disaster agency official said residents in the area should get to higher ground immediately.

"Strong earthquake here in Taft, Eastern Samar! And it lasted very long too!" Evardone said by text message earlier. He said the quake had destroyed some roads and bridges.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

A radio reporter in Leyte province, near Samar, said people had run out of their homes when the quake struck. "It felt like we were being rocked," he said.

The tsunami warning was initially issued for the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea and other islands in the Pacific including the U.S. state of Hawaii.

The region has been hit by devastating quakes in the past decade. At least 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean countries were killed in a quake and tsunami off Indonesia in 2004.

Last year, an earthquake and tsunami off Japan's northeastern coast killed about 20,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years after waves battered a nuclear power station.

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source

An example of modest dress

As a people who are preparing for the soon return of Christ, we should give to the world an example of modest dress in contrast with the prevailing fashion of the day.

Child Guidance, p. 424.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Lawyers Seek the Release of a Christian Girl Charged With Blasphemy in Pakistan

By DECLAN WALSH

Published: August 28, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The fate of a Pakistani Christian girl at the center of a contentious blasphemy case hung in the balance on Tuesday, as lawyers applied for her release from jail and an influential Muslim cleric offered his support.

The Pakistani authorities have held the girl, Rimsha Masih, in a high-security jail since Aug. 16, when hundreds of Muslim protesters, angered over claims that she had burned pages from an Islamic holy book, surrounded a police station here in Islamabad to demand that she face prosecution.

Fearing violence, the police filed blasphemy charges against Ms. Masih. Relatives and human rights workers said she was 11 years old and had Down syndrome, and should therefore be exempt from the blasphemy laws. The girl, who comes from an impoverished family of Christian sweepers, was said to have been seen holding a burned copy of the Noorani Qaida, a religious textbook used to teach the Koran to children.

After a brief court hearing on Tuesday morning, Ms. Masih’s lawyer, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, said a medical board had established that she was 14 years old and had a degree of mental disability. “The report establishes that her mental condition does not match her age and physical condition,” he said.

That medical finding could help break the deadlock in a case that has outraged human rights groups, embarrassed Pakistan’s government and renewed the spotlight on laws that experts say are abused by the powerful to prey on the weak and on religious minorities.

Mr. Chaudhry said he hoped Ms. Masih would be granted bail at the next scheduled hearing, on Thursday, while senior government officials indicated that they were pressing to have the charges droppede.

For now, worries for Ms. Masih’s well-being focus on her incarceration at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where Mr. Chaudhry told reporters that he found her “weeping and crying” during a visit last Saturday. Amnesty International has said it was “extremely concerned” for Ms. Masih’s safety, noting that some people accused of blasphemy in Pakistan had been killed by vigilantes before their cases reached trial.

Ms. Masih’s plight has also prompted concern among conservative Muslim clerics who, alarmed by a spate of recent blasphemy-inspired mob attacks, have united with Christian leaders on the issue.

The police should investigate Ms. Masih’s case “immediately and without fear,” said Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, the chairman of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, an umbrella group of Muslim clerics, including some from fundamentalist groups. If investigators find that Ms. Masih is innocent, he added, those who instigated false charges against her should be prosecuted.

“In Pakistan, we have one law for both Muslims and Christians,” he said. “The government should apply it.”

Human rights campaigners said that Ms. Masih’s parents were in the protective custody of the minister for national harmony, Paul Bhatti, whose brother Shahbaz Bhatti, the former minorities minister, was shot to death outside his Islamabad home last year.

Hundreds of Ms. Masih’s Christian neighbors fled the area once the scandal erupted, fearing for their lives. Last weekend some erected a makeshift church, using branches, on the edge of nearby forested land, where they held prayer services, The Associated Press reported. That structure has since been burned down, and the Christians have been forced to leave the land.

Some 50 families have returned to the neighborhood, said Joseph Francis of the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, which is working to help people accused of blasphemy in more than 100 cases. But, Mr. Francis added, local Muslim shopkeepers are refusing to sell food to Christian families, leaving them dependent on donations from Christian charities.

Human rights campaigners are using Ms. Masih’s case to renew calls for changes to the blasphemy laws, which date from the British colonial era and are frequently abused by powerful Muslim clerics to persecute religious minorities or to pursue grudges against fellow Muslims.

But the issue is considered politically toxic, particularly since the assassination of the governor of Punjab Province, Salman Taseer, at the hands of his own bodyguard in January last year. The bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, said he killed Mr. Taseer because he had supported changes to the blasphemy laws and because he had supported Asia Bibi, the first woman sentenced to death for blasphemy. Ms. Bibi remains in jail.

If, as the government hopes, Ms. Masih is released this week, there is little chance that she can return to her home, Mr. Francis said.

“It is not possible for her to stay in the same village” because of security concerns, he said, adding that his organization had helped resettle people accused of blasphemy in the United States, Canada, Germany and across Pakistan.

Plans are already being made to relocate Ms. Masih and her family, he said.

Salman Masood contributed reporting.

Source

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Over 10,000 Churches Commit to 'National Back to Church Sunday'

National Back To Church 2012, set to take place on September 16. Over 10,000 churches have committed to being involved.

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter
August 21, 2012|5:40 pm

Thousands of congregations across the country are committing to take part in a nationwide event meant to reach out to the unchurched.

"National Back to Church Sunday," slated for Sept. 16, has over 10,000 churches officially listed as participating in the event.

"It is the single largest annual community outreach in the nation, sharing the simple message and mission of inviting everyone in America Back to Church," the event's website says.

"The campaign empowers churches and church members with the tools they need to welcome their neighbors, friends and loved ones back to church, while providing the unchurched with an easy way to find a welcoming church in their community."

"National Back to Church Sunday" is organized in part by Outreach, Inc., an organization formed in 1996 that seeks to provide churches with outreach products.

Kim Flynn, marketing project manager for the Products Division of Outreach, Inc., noted that the event is "based on the simple principle that 82 percent of people will come to church if invited by a friend, and yet only 2 percent of church members invite unchurched friends to church."

"Since 2009, National Back to Church Sunday has inspired churchgoers to invite more than 2.6 million family members, friends, neighbors and co-workers to their churches. Last year, 7,600 churches participated. As of this year more than 10,000 congregations have participated in the event."

Organizers of the Back to Church event have been using social media as a means of getting the word out. This has included the usage of "e-vites," a Facebook page that at present has over 9,700 likes, and a YouTube video of the "Pastor Rap" which was posted in June and has since gained over 76,000 views.

The National Back to Church organizers hope that even after Sept. 16 has come and gone, the message of their event will continue to grow.

"In a culture where 'church' has lost significant meaning to many we hope people will discover how they can reach their God-given potential and how they can transform their lives and community," said the organizers in a statement.

"We have developed the 30-Day Church Challenge and it is drawing thousands of churches to examine their foundational purposes. In a concentrated focus through a variety of media on scriptures in Acts, congregations will repurpose to reach their biblical potential and transform their communities.

Source: http://www.christianpost.com/news/over-10000-churches-commit-to-national-back-to-church-sunday-80367/#UIJupRSGAKWXwpug.99

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mark Cleminson former illuminati family member defector

Published on May 16, 2012 by VesselAnaw

Mark Cleminson ex-former illuminati family member defector secret societies

Where did 'The Takeaway' come from?

Ifill and Judy Woodruff

Tonight at 7 PM, I tuned my radio to WUFT-FM - 89.1 FM in Gainesville, FL to hear the news; Normally at this time they provide the PBS Newshour (Lehrer - Ifill Report), an in-depth Public Television (now being also featured on radio) news program that was previously known as The MacNeil/Lehrer Report. Much to my surprise the feature was preempted by a program called 'The Takeaway' from WNYC -- Public Radio International. As I looked on the radio station's website for the reason for this change, I noticed this:

Monday-Thursday, Aug. 27-30, 8-11 p.m.
PBS NEWSHOUR SPECIAL REPORT: REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Veteran journalists Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff anchor complete live coverage of the Republican national political convention, from the opening gavel to its official close.

Well, the first thing I found strange was that there was no news report from NPR at the top of the hour, then I noticed that during the opening segment when they discussed the current Tampa GOP Convention, that the two female experts were partial to the Republican Presidential candidate and his VP; Something which I don't usually hear on any of the programs broadcast on this Station WUFT/Gainesville. Funny how a single program change can jar my awareness, or shake-up my attention? Apparently not all public radio programs are biased.

It's now 8:00 PM and there's another surprise in programming on my radio; WJUF - 90.1 » Inverness, FL., the local affiliate is not providing the scheduled special PBS Newshour from the Republican Convention, instead they are having ON POINT (WBUR - Boston), the usual scheduled program. I guess I spoke too soon, it seems as if someone still has a Liberal (Progressive) bias when it comes to politics. Too bad that public funds are used to operate a local public radio station that has a political agenda to promote.

Arsenio.

Bin Laden Raid Became Re-Election Mission, SEAL Book Says

By Noah Shachtman
Email Author
August 29, 2012 |
8:44 am

Follow @dangerroom

President Obama and his national security team watch the bin Laden raid unfold. Photo: Wikimedia

The mission was twofold: first and foremost, kill Osama bin Laden. Then, once the deed was done and the troops were back safe, help re-elect the president of the United States by promoting the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist.

That’s the accusation in “No Easy Day,” the firsthand account of the bin Laden raid from Matt Bissonette, a former member of SEAL Team 6. Copies of the book, due out next week, were obtained by the Huffington Post and by the Associated Press’ Kim Dozier.

In the excerpts they present, Bissonette praises President Obama for giving the green light to attack bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad. But even before the mission began, Bissonette and his fellow SEALs knew that the raid would be played up by the White House for political purposes.

“We’ll get Obama re-elected for sure. I can see him now, talking about how he killed bin Laden,” one SEAL said, according to Bissonette.

Bissonette adds: “We all knew the deal. We were tools in the toolbox, and when things go well they promote it. They inflate their roles. But we should have done it. It was the right call to make. Regardless of the politics that would come along with it, the end result was what we all wanted.”

The degree to which the White House took credit for — and leaked information about — the bin Laden raid has already become a contentious campaign issue. “No Easy Day,” written by Bissonette under a pseudonym and co-authored by the journalist Kevin Maurer, won’t exactly relieve that strain. A political action committee backed by right-wing activists and claiming to represent former special operations forces has gone after the “countless leaks, interviews and decisions by the Obama administration” that have “put future missions and personnel at risk.” Republicans have teased Obama for playing up his role in the mission. “He pats himself on the back every night for continuing the aggressive search for bin Laden started by George Bush,” said one surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Obama administration internal messages, released yesterday by Judicial Watch, provide fresh details about the promotional push that followed the bin Laden raid. The CIA, for example, helped a pair of White House-friendly filmmakers, Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow, arrange interviews with two of the men who accompanied Bissonette on the mission to Abbottabad. “I know we don’t pick favorites but it makes sense to get behind a winning horse,” agency spokesperson Marie Harf wrote. “Mark and Kathryn’s movie is going to be the first and the biggest. It’s got the most money behind it, and two Oscar winners on board.”

Bissonette writes that the initial accounts of the raid, leaked by administration officials, were bordering on Tinseltown, as well. A claimed 40-minute gunfight between the SEALs and al-Qaida operatives never happened. Nor was bin Laden shot while reaching for a gun, as officials originally claimed. In fact, the terrorist was unarmed and didn’t even bother to defend himself. ”The raid was being reported like a bad action movie,” Bissonette says. “At first, it was funny because it was so wrong.”

Later, Bissonette and his fellow SEALs met the president. At the end of the meeting, Obama invited the troops to the White House for a beer at a later date. A few weeks later, Bissonette asked a teammate if he heard anything about the beer. The reply, according to the author: “You believed that xxxx. I bet you voted for change too, sucker.”

Source

Gay Rights Special Rights

Uploaded by StraightGazette Jul 19, 2009

THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA IS A THREAT TO YOU...YOUR FAMILY... YOUR COUNTRY! Homosexuality is only 1% of this nations population, yet our freedom, basic morality, constitutional values, basic welfare and even our CHILDREN are under constant attack by this indulgence oriented group... Homosexuality is targeting our youth by preying on their vulnerability. Homosexuals are redefining the family to include all forms of sexual preference and perversion... Homosexuals have demanded that the 1964 Civil Rights Act be amended to make "sexual preference" a constitutionally protected right! Your church, business and school will be forced to employ homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders, or those who practice pedophilia... It is time for God's people to stand up! Tomorrow will be too late! This video will change you... And only you can change your country!

'2016: Obama's America' goes by the book

Dinesh D'Souza's documentary, which promises to demystify the president, draws from a tome by the filmmaker. Thus, its course is already set — and that's a weakness.

A scene from "2016: Obama's America." (2016: Obama's America / August 26, 2012)

By Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

August 26, 2012, 9:00 p.m.

What has Michael Moore — and digital technology — wrought?

Now anyone with a political agenda and low-cost digital camera can make a movie and call it a documentary. Even enterprises that at best are vanity projects and at worst badly disguised and overly long attack ads are taken seriously by audiences — and box-office observers.

That is precisely the shape of things in "2016: Obama's America," which promises to demystify the president — "Love him, hate him, now you know him" is one of its tag lines — but does more to illuminate its filmmaker, Dinesh D'Souza, and his ego instead.

PHOTOS: Campaign trail lessons on film

The conservative author, who wrote and directed the film with John Sullivan, draws liberally from his book "The Roots of Obama's Rage." The book, in turn, draws on the author's life — how he left his native India to study in America and how those disparate experiences shaped his political point of view. The film, released in late July, went from a handful of theaters to wide release with more than $6.2 million in ticket sales over the weekend, the better to ride the GOPconvention coattails in Tampa, Fla., this week.

Since "2016" is unlikely to be the last DIY polemic we will see in the coming years, the question becomes: How does it measure up as a film? Where is the line between documentary and propaganda? How are moviegoers — or campaign-spending watchdogs for that matter — to separate veracity from vanity?

What is certain is that "2016" is already a commercial success. In a world where $14 million puts you into the top five moneymakers of all time among political documentaries, its $9.1 million puts "2016" within striking distance. That is a long way from Moore's No. 1-ranked "Fahrenheit 9/11," which topped $119 million but a success nonetheless.

PHOTOS: All-time box office leaders

It is worth noting that documentaries don't necessarily promise pure objectivity. Moore, the defining figure in crafting the modern-day political rant, never has. From his first relentless pursuit of General Motors Chief ExecutiveRoger Smith in 1989's "Roger & Me," the in-your-face filmmaker has been blunt about his intentions. But Moore's work and the genre itself come with an implicit understanding that whatever truths emerge, they were ultimately forged by the process, not set in stone beforehand.

Indeed, the basic framework of the documentary narrative tends to be one of discovery. The question of what was driving an underfunded, underprivileged South Memphis football team's success became the spine of "Undefeated,"which won the documentary Oscar this year. And the how-and-why dreary details of this country's financial collapse, as parsed in Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," another Oscar winner, made the catastrophe film exciting.

That "2016" was built on a book is one of its fundamental weaknesses, its course determined before the first frame was shot. The film is not after new insight; rather, it's intent on laying out the arguments of a man who has given the same lecture countless times. That makes for a sluggish film. Even its outrage falls flat.

The film begins with D'Souza, once a political advisor to President Ronald Reagan, drawing parallels between his life and Obama's — born in the same year, Ivy League degrees earned at the same time, both politically engaged, skin equally dark. While D'Souza's quiet, scholarly sensibility serves him well on the TV talk-show circuit, a relief from the intense rhetoric that reigns, it works against him on screen. As he sits, legs crossed, addressing the camera like a professor, the film begins to feel like a class you wish you had cut.

The many dramatic reenactments, long controversial in the documentary world, don't help its cause. There are seven setups involving more than 100 credited actors. The scenarios themselves play like badly scripted sitcoms. Some are like "Dartmouth," an affectionate if silly re-creation of D'Souza's student days. Others, like "Cowboy Bar," are sheer fantasy. In that scene, which comes as D'Souza outlines his theories on why Obama did not play the race card in his 2008 election bid, a young African American comes into a bar and sits down between two white guys, who immediately push away in disgust. Cut to a few minutes later when the white guys return, all smiles, with a birthday cake in hand for their friend. Not only is the scene poorly acted, it simply doesn't make sense and raises questions about the logic underpinning the other connections the film is seeking to make.

The core thesis in "2016" is that Obama's politics come from Third World influences — from his father in Kenya and his early years spent with his mother in Indonesia. There are lengthy explanations of colonialism, which D'Souza supports, versus what he describes as Obama's preference for an anticolonialist approach, one that would favor the rise of the Third World (or, as D'Souza labels it, the United States of Islam), greatly reduce Israel's influence and cede the U.S.' role as a superpower.

D'Souza goes on to argue that this approach explains everything from healthcare reform to a reduction in the nuclear arsenal. Interviews with interested parties, news footage and excerpts from Obama's 1995 book "Dreams From My Father," are woven in as well. But mostly it is D'Souza connecting the dots; there are no opposing points of view.

In weighing "2016's" documentary credentials, one scene that resurfaces many times in the film is instructive. Shot at the grave of Obama's father, the scene shows a close-up of a hand grasping some dirt and reverently dropping it onto the burial site. The hand is an actor's, not Obama's.

The moment is merely another piece of heavy-handed drama conjured up by the filmmakers — nothing more, nothing less.

Source

Families of victims of theater shooting in Colorado slam relief fund

Families of victims of the Aurora Colorado movie shooting held a press conference expressing anger over how millions of dollars raised through donations and fundraisers have been dispersed.

By Sam Schulz, NBC News

The families of victims of the Colorado movie theater massacre said Tuesday at an emotionally charged news conference that although a fund intended to help them had raised more than $5 million, they had been shut out of the decision-making process.

Family members in Aurora, Colo., tearfully decried what they called state officials' and the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance's lack of leadership and organization. They accused fundraisers of failing to give them a voice in determining what to do with the money already donated to the fund, despite using photographs of the victims in their fundraising efforts.

Group spokesman Tom Teves, whose aspiring psychiatrist son Alex Teves, 24, was killed in the attack, pleaded on behalf of the group for urgent financial help and for more of a role in the process.

“We come to speak as one voice,” Teves said. “We are here because we want the public to know what has happened within days of the shooting.”

Other victims' relatives said that COVA's disorganization had left them all in the dark about the fund and deprived them of a much-needed sense of community.

"Every desire that we have has to come under a microscope," said the mother of one victim, responding to a question about the particular financial needs of victims' families. Deidra Brooks, whose 19-year-old son Jarell was recovering from his wounds from the July 20 shooting rampage, said that scrutiny had added insult to injury.

"It's more than a slap in the face. It's going through the 20th over and over and over," she said.

Teves said money had been solicited for The Aurora Victim Relief Fund using the names and pictures of those slain. "I am certain that the public intended 100 percent of those donations to go to the families of victims, and to use that money to help the healing process," Teves said. "Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case."

Teves said the families believed the funds would help all the victims, who Teves said included people in the theater or in the shooter’s apartment complex who suffered physically or emotionally.

The 12 who were killed included 18-year-old recent high school graduate AJ Boik, Air Force cyber-systems operator Jesse Childress, aspiring sportscaster Jessica Ghawi, community college student Micayla Medek and mother of two Rebecca Wingo.

Alexander Teves, Matt McQuinn, U.S. Navy veteran Jonathan Blunk and Navy sailor John Larimer all died shielding their friends or girlfriends.

NBC News

Tom Teves speaks at a press conference as other family members of the theater shooting victims look on Tuesday in Aurora, Colo.

The massacre's oldest victim was 51-year-old Gordon Cowden, whose teen children survived it, and its youngest was 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan, who had just learned to swim. Alex Sullivan, no relation to Veronica Moser-Sullivan, was celebrating his 27th birthday and his first wedding anniversary on the night he was killed.

The conference came as lawyers in the murder case against accused gunman James Holmes wrangled over what should be made public.

Holmes is accused of unleashing the July 20 shooting rampage at an Aurora movie theater. Police say the 24-year-old, wearing body armor and a gas mask and heavily armed, opened fire on an audience of the opening night of "The Dark Knight Rises," killing 12 and injuring 58.

Police apprehended Holmes, who had recently withdrawn as a neuroscience Ph.D student from the University of Colorado, outside the theater and said they later removed explosives from his booby-trapped apartment.

Thanks to a court-imposed gag order, little has been publicly said about the case — despite the intensity of prosecutors' legal battle with defense lawyers, who maintain Holmes is mentally ill, over access to his university and medical records.

Prosecutors want access to Holmes' school records as well as to the contents of a package he sent to his psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton. News reports citing anonymous sources indicated that package contained a notebook with writings that reportedly described a violent attack.

Defense lawyers argue the contents of the package are privileged, as Holmes' confidential communication with his doctor, and say Holmes is mentally ill.

In the weeks following the shooting, details of Holmes' past have slowly trickled out but have left victims' families few clues as to a motive.

The New York Times reported Sunday that weeks before the massacre, Holmes had text messaged a classmate about a psychiatric condition common in patients with bipolar disorder and had warned her to stay away from him, saying, "I am bad news."

Prosecutors said in court filings that in May he had shown another classmate a semiautomatic pistol he had bought "for protection" and that in March he had told another that he wanted to kill people "when his life was over."

A hearing on the question of access to the contents of the package Holmes mailed to Dr. Fenton is scheduled for Thursday, and Fenton is expected to testify.

Sevil Omer of NBC News contributed to this report.

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