The Conservative Oil Tycoon Billionaires, the Koch Brothers, are after our free press and the newspapers that could serve as a broader platform for their conservative ideology. Newspapers provide our country with information and coverage that is essential for democracy. This is not a business investment for the billionaire brothers. Their interest in buying the newspapers is for their self-serving conservative political strategy. If the Koch’s purchase the Tribune Company they will control the content of eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Hartford Courant, which includes more than 20 stations like WGN and KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles. We know how the Koch’s will run the newspapers because we’ve seen how they use their tremendous wealth to influence elections, buy politicians, and restrict academic freedom.

Brave New Foundation has the honor of releasing a video to accompany a seminal report by human rights law experts at Stanford and New York University law schools. The report, entitled Living Under Drones presents chilling first-hand testimony from Pakistani civilians on the humanitarian and security costs of escalating drone attacks by the United States. The report uncovers civilian deaths, and shocking psychological and social damage to whole families and communities – where people are literally scared to leave their homes because of drones flying overhead 24 hours a day.

The Koch brothers don't just have a gazillion luxury homes and boats. They've been using their wealth to shut out the voices of the 99% -- pledging to spend at least $100 million on the 2012 elections. The pro-corporate policies they favor are, of course, antithetical to the public interest. But the TV ads they're airing so far in this election make it seem like they're on the side of regular Americans. Watch the video:

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The Koch brothers don't just have a gazillion luxury homes and boats. They've been using their wealth to shut out the voices of the 99% -- pledging to spend at least $100 million on the 2012 elections. The pro-corporate policies they favor are, of course, antithetical to the public interest. But the TV ads they're airing so far in this election make it seem like they're on the side of regular Americans. "Maybe your family is like most, struggling to make it by...The private sector is not doing fine," says Americans for Prosperity, an organization the Kochs founded and fund. Watch the video:

In January 2009, the media narrative in the U.S. favored increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, bending the public opinion in favor of the same. Understanding the national catastrophe waiting in the wings if lives and scarce national resources were wasted on a military "fix" to a political problem, Brave New Foundation launched Rethink Afghanistan.

Our latest report Rethink Afghanistan: Study of Effectiveness and Messaging Success details the goals of our campaign and how the campaign was ultimately successful. We launched this campaign to convince the public and policymakers that escalation would not make us safer and was not worth the costs. Three years later only 30% of Americans now believe that the Afghanistan War has been worth fighting. Thank you to our donors and activists who helped make all of this possible. Please help us continue the conversation with our new campaign War Costs. We need your support to put renegade defense spending to an end.

By Robert Greenwald

If any doubt was left about the power of big money in our politics, the Wisconsin election destroyed it. Charles and David Koch goosed Gov. Scott Walker's campaign with $10 million through their front group Americans for Prosperity, $1 million through the Republican Governors Association, and more from members of the "million-dollar donor club" of financial titans that meet regularly at Koch-hosted secret summits. Meanwhile, the official campaign of Democratic opponent Tom Barrett raised about $4 million. Is it any wonder that Walker climbed steadily in the polls and ultimately won?

Yet as my new film Koch Brothers Exposed illustrates, the Kochs' political influence goes beyond buying the public debate. The Kochs have also been investing in suppressing the vote -- providing a one-two punch to democracy. First they try to change your mind, and failing that, they try to take your vote.