May 4, 2007 | Tony Brasunas

The intelligent and grandfatherly Senator Joe Biden addressed the World Affairs Council in San Francisco's Crowne Plaza Hotel Wednesday night. The rows of chairs covering the ballroom floor were full. A hush fell as Biden, dressed in a conservative suit, opened his remarks with quiet, striking gravitas. "We must restore our place in the world," he began.

The Senator from Delaware and candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination ticked off the problems this administration has created for us as a nation through its foreign and domestic policies. Quickly his focus moved to the Iraq War, and he devoted to this topic most of his time and passion during the evening. He called the war the "boulder in the road" obstructing progress on all other issues, and he repeatedly criticized the handling of the invasion and occupation. He drew his first round of applause by repeating several times, "This war must end."

The war was launched unnecessarily, without giving the weapons inspectors time to finish their work, without enough troops or equipment, and, worst of all, "without a plan, any plan," he declared. And the deaths of thousands, the loss of over a trillion dollars, and the neglect of countless domestic opportunities have been the results. He faulted the president repeatedly.

Conspicuously, he avoided explaining how he himself voted in 2002 or how he's voted since. As the ranking Democrat, and now the Chairman, of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, his opinion has certainly carried weight over the years; the knowledgeable in the room were left to wonder: where was this incisive knowledge, this clarity regarding the work of the weapons inspectors, these well-reasoned objections to the launching of the war, back in 2002, when it mattered most?

On some occasions Biden has repudiated his original vote, and of course, among all the Democratic candidates who have t... more

January 8, 2007 | Tony Brasunas

I sent this to her on paper in an actual paper envelope. As well as via email. Feel free to read, skim, plagiarize, copy, cut, paste, forward, ignore, or reply. Inspired by CongratulationsDemocratsNowDoYourJob.com.





Dear Speaker Pelosi,


As one of your constituents, I thank you for all your hard work and congratulate you on the Democratic victories in last years mid-term elections. Thanks and congratulations!



Now lets get down to business. Please guide the Democratic Party to do the job it has been elected to do. For the sake of our entire nation and our grandchildren, please, use your considerable powers as incoming Speaker to take this nation in a new direction, away from all the scandals and militarism, and towards responsibility and vision. Under your watch in 2007, Congress must tackle the following issues aggressively.



Eleven Essential Issues For Congress in 2007



1) ALL VOTES MUST HAVE A PAPER TRAIL  We dont know who is winning our elections today. That Democrats won some close elections this past November must not distract us from the fact that we have insecure election machines which sorely undermine citizen confidence in both our democracy and in our elected officials, and which may be putting criminals into office.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/





2) BREAK UP THE CORPORATE MEDIA MONOPOLY  Our nation has gone through hell with the Iraq War, a war based on lies to begin with and the cause of countless additional lies since. Leading up to the invasion, although there were mass demonstrations against it throughout America and worldwide, woefully little attention was given to antiwar voices in our media. The overwhelming majority of talking head experts brought on to the news talk shows of the major corporate media were transparently pro-war. Meanwhile, a mere tiny percentage of air time was given to those professors, pun... more

December 7, 2006 | Tony Brasunas

Thank you for all that you do. I gladly accept your invitation to communicate where I would like to see MoveOn and our larger progressive community go.

Let's leave a bit of the partisanship behind. The biggest issues of our day transcend Democrat and Republican. Let's cover and mobilize around the truly biggest issues:

1. 9-11 Truth. We absolutely need a new authentically independent investigation (probably something like a trial, with witnesses and evidence, since this was a heinous crime). The official version cannot be true on hundreds of points, and we need to know what really happened in order to have any chance of making our domestic and international priorities on all other issues correct. There is no bigger issue than this, as it affects every other political discussion and action in the world today. It dictates how the various branches of offices of government are structured and funded. This is the issue our children will venerate or criticize us for. Among dozens of excellent movies, "9/11 Press for Truth" is the most brilliantly incisive. www.911pressfortruth.com

2. Electoral Fraud. In many parts of the country, we don't know who is winning our elections. We know that fraud in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 -- at the least -- swung elections selecting the leader of this, the world's most powerful country. We cannot believe that because Democrats won close elections this year this issue has been even remotely resolved. We need to continue to galvanize a grassroots movement to investigate these past elections, as well as to create a nonprofit, nonpartisan, open source electoral commission to supervise and equip our future American elections.

3. Impeachment. It's time. This, along with independent grassroots action for the above two issues is the road to investigate the truth about 9-11 and this so-called War on Terrorism, as well as the electoral irregularities of the past six years and also all of the neofascist la... more

November 7, 2006 | Tony Brasunas

Do what millions have fought and died for, what millions more yearn for --
participate in a grand experiment in self-government.

It ain't perfect, it ain't always right...
but it's our government,
and it benefits from your personal attention.

Below I list how I voted, if you're interested.


San Francisco Candidates:

Congressional District 8: Krissy Keefer

* Involved in the DraftMatt.com campaign, I did a lot of research into how Nancy Pelosi actually votes and saw what she actually supports, despite the media coverage of her as the liberal left coast darling. She is pro-war. She is pro-military. She is pro-concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthy. That is how she votes when no one's looking. On high profile issues she (sometimes) votes the way she should, given her constituency. She is absolutely not providing San Francisco authentic representation in Congress at a time when the world needs San Francisco to be represented. See the research I did. Keefer is a principled and powerful woman who would take a strong stand for San Francisco in Washington. Pelosi will, of course, win, and is spending her time on the worthwhile cause of wresting control of Congress rather than on campaigning here in San Francisco.


Public Defender: Jeff Adachi

* Pretty good. Running unopposed.

School Board:

Jane Kim

Kim Knox

Kim-Shree Maufas

* Some great candidates. Real chance to bring progressive education policy to SF schools.

Community College Board:

John Rizzo

Bruce Wolfe

Anita Grier

* It's time to get the corruption out of the college board. These are good candidates.

San Francisco Propositions:

Prop A: YES
School Bond

* With a good school board, this money will be spent well.... more

September 11, 2006 | Tony Brasunas

At 11 a.m. on Sept 11, 2001, our television sets told us an organization called Al Qaeda was responsible for the death and destruction that had transpired a few hours ago. We were supplied with little evidence to support this claim, but we needed someone to blame and so we went along. Five years later, we have growing reasons to believe it was never true.

I could go on about the reasons, but to get to the point, what has changed recently has been mainstream media coverage of what is now called the "9-11 Truth Movement." This movement of people like you and me has grown exponentially as it endeavors tirelessly to uncover what really happened on that horrific day.

Polls now say that between a quarter and a half of Americans believe that what really happened on 9-11 was something other than the official government theory. Are these millions of Americans "Conspiracy Theorists"? In truth of course anyone who thinks in any way about 9-11 is a conspiracy theorist. A conspiracy occurred that day. The question is, Who do you believe was involved in it and in what capacity? "9-11 researchers" might be a fairer title with which to label those who, like myself, find it to be a deeply patriotic duty to uncover the truth behind this defining event in the current life of our nation and our planet. All of our wars and reshaped domestic priorities continue to revolve around our shared, but possibly very flawed, accounting of 9-11.

Not everyone has the time or willingness to look into this. In the past week, dozens of new stories have been written about the growing trend away from belief in the official story. I invite you to read one or two of them as part of commemorating and understanding 9-11 and the governmental changes it has created.



--NOTE--

Before listing the stories, a quick note. To some extent it has sunk in among newspaper reporters that with a third or more of Americans not believing the official government s... more

July 19, 2006 | Tony Brasunas

The only blemish on my happy return to the United States after six weeks of travels in Europe during the World Cup has been this insane, disgusting war Israel and the United States have launched on Lebanon.

The propaganda assaulting the American population via the mainstream media today is possibly even worse than it was during the initial invasion of Iraq. We're led to believe that Israel is simply attacking Hezbollah -- nay, defending itself against Hezbollah, an implacably evil foe -- and not actually attacking a sovereign nation. "Israel and Hezbollah Trade Fierce Missile Attacks," headlines the San Francisco Chronicle, as if the two are 'trading' something, as if they are equal foes, when one is a nation, the regional military superpower, a combatant which wields nuclear weapons and receives billions in military aid from the US every three months, while the other is a weak band of (depending on your perspective) terrorists or freedom fighters intent on ridding southern Lebanon of the Israeli troops and Mossad agents who have been in southern Lebanon for three decades. For it's easier to propagandize people to hate and see as less than human a group with a strange-sounding name than it is to legitimize the bombardment and invasion of a nation. A headline like, "Israel Bombs Lebanon All Night, Killing Hundreds" would be a bit too accurate for comfort.

The New York Times: "Israel Pounds Lebanon After Hezbollah Launches Missile Attacks." As if Israel did not strike first and strike harder. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians are dead, hundreds more wounded. Israel has lost about a dozen civilians and perhaps a dozen soldiers. One will be led to forget this disparity by reading American or British media.

This situation is not black and white. There is history and religion and racism and fear and terrorism to consider. But the bias of the media in this country defies belief. Consider the story of the abductions, the ostensible ... more