PINKO DAILY BRIEFS:  This is the day of the show y’all. Hi! A few serious reads and a few lighter notes for your weekend. First, we talked yesterday about the Change.gov petition and the special torture prosecutor; Countdown covered it last night and you can watch the discussion here. Another effort is underway to propose new ideas to the new President at Change.org, and a Pinko has made it through to the second round. Change.org is sponsoring “Ideas for Change in America,” a nationwide competition to identify the best … ideas for change. The top 10 ideas will be presented to the Obama administration just before inauguration day and form the basis of a nationwide advocacy campaign to turn each idea into actual policy. PinkoSandy, a frequent contributor here, has authored an important one – Demilitarize Humanitarian Aid and Increase Civilian Capacity — and it’s made it to the second round of voting. He writes: 

Shifting more resources to civilian development agencies and supporting a non-military humanitarian response apparatus will go a long way toward preventing future failed states from becoming hotbeds of radicalism and will create much more long term solutions to global poverty and crises than a militarized humanitarian intervention.

 Go here to read the whole piece and vote for it!  

Staying serious, PinkoClaire sent over an action alert for New Yorkers encouraging the Governor to tax the shit out of the rich. We’re inclined to agree, or at least put it up for debate. Even more serious is what’s going on in Oakland, where a murder by the transit police of an unarmed, already subdued victim on New Years Eve has sparked protests and outrage but no serious investigation yet. Normally it’s the Oakland and San Francisco police departments who are doing the brutalizing; the transit cops getting involved is a new one. I haven’t seen a good action or petition around this but here’s a good piece from the fantastic Adrienne Brown that’s worth a read. [Oh! Scratch that. Here are 5 Things You Can Do About the Grant Shooting, if so moved.]

What else? Barack Obama is keeping the current White House chef; Alice Waters is pissed. Don’t fuck with Alice Waters! We’ll see what happens. Overseas, PETA-Australia is renaming fish “sea kittens” in a move to make fish seem more lovable and less edible to children. The best thing about the article, though, is the bulleted news summary at the top, the most perfect and succinct news summary ever rendering the article itself completely unnecessary: 

• Fish need image rehaul – PETA
• Decide to call them “sea kittens”
• Hard to take PETA seriously – Opposition

Oh — our featured briefs today? They’re organic. Buy some. The models, however, are 97% human growth hormone and 2% creatine. Also not organic is the spate of DIY haircolorings, which are injuring women all over America who are trying to save some money and deal with their coloring at home. Finally? This is amazing. Thanks to PinkoPete for the find. My favorite moment comes at about 3:10: “Shostakovich fucked like a jackhammer.”

About The Author
Ben Wyskida is a writer, activist, conscientious hedonist and political communications strategist living in Brooklyn. - Visit Ben's site.