Garcia Media Life

Sarah Palin did it.  Evan Bayh is about to.  In an era in which being an incumbent is becoming a serious liability, the road to political success appears to be- leaving office.   

In Palin’s case, she resigned as Alaska Governor and promptly wrote a best-seller, went on a barn-storming tour and has become more visible than ever.  No pesky, parochial Alaska issues to deal with- just crowds of adoring fans at Daytona and elsewhere.  Though polls show most Americans, including a significant majority of independents, don’t consider her qualified for the White House, they also find she is the top contender for the Republican nomination at this point.

As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer sees it, Indiana Democratic Senator, Evan Bayh’s announcement that he will not be seeking re-election allows him to avoid taking increasingly difficult political stands that would either force him to support an agenda that would make him unpopular at home or oppose the White House and become increasingly unpopular with his colleagues.  That, says Krauthammer, paves the way for a potentially successful Presidential run in 2016 free of any controversial baggage.

The Palin and Bayh motivations and actions are polar opposites.  Palin is hyper-partisan.  Bayh says he’s leaving because he’s fed up with partisanship. But it would appear that with an American economy in tatters and Washington gridlocked into paralysis on the critical issues of our times, the best way to position yourself as an outsider these days- is to actually be one. 

It is rather paradoxical, of course.  If the trend continues, there won’t be any need to “throw the bums out.”  They will have all thrown themselves out.  For now.

Having already written a serious assessment of the Supreme Court decision that allows unlimited corporate spending on political advertising, the claim by some that it will result in the wholesale purchase of lawmakers got me thinking about what it might be like to have one completely in my pocket.

This will never happen, of course, because I don’t make nearly as much money as Exxon, so the chances are next to zero. But one can dream.

For starters, and to make me feel better about myself, I think I would have him introduce legislation that would declare my birthday, October 29th, as National Robert Garcia Appreciation Day. If this passes, the following year I would go for a National Robert Garcia Awareness Month.

I think it might also be nice to have a bridge or a highway named after me. Many of my tax dollars have already gone toward the construction of such infrastructure so I think it’s only right. But why stop there? I would also want one train station and one airport. And they should be ones that I use, so I would have him propose renaming La Guardia and Union Station. I don’t necessarily expect that resolution to pass, but you have to take a strong initial bargaining position. If we end up with a small, municipal airport and perhaps the tiny little BWI train station, I could find this acceptable.

Then I’d have him introduce an amendment to the omnibus spending bill that would contain a provision that would exempt Robert Garcia from all federal income taxes. How cool would it be to actually keep the gross amount you see on your pay stub?

I also want a farm subsidy. Farmers, you know, are often paid to not grow certain crops. Though I am technically not a farmer, it is a well-established fact that I do not grow corn and I’d like to be paid for that. Because this seems such fertile ground (forgive the pun), going forward, I would point out to my Congressman that there are several other agricultural products I also do not grow like wheat and soy beans.

And then there’s the whole area of research. I would be more than happy to initiate studies on certain important topics like the psychological benefits of attending sports events and concerts. Or perhaps, the effects of sunshine on flies which might require travel to places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico. A few federal grants in the research area would go a long way toward improving the relationship between me and my Congressman.

I could go on and I will. But, regrettably, only in my dreams.

From the UK's Daily Mail- the new generation of Chinese high-speed trains

I’ve written enthusiastically on this web-blog before about Amtrak and the need in this country for rail technology that truly brings us into the 21st century. Today, I boned up on it a bit and here’s where we actually stand right now in regard to high-speed rail in the United States.
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But first…is that not an absolutely amazing sight pictured above? That’s the new generation of Chinese high-speed trains. These things can go 245 mph and actually average 217 mph between the modern Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan. Took only four years to build. Granted this is China and the government controls everything so there weren’t exactly any controversies over land rights and labor union contracts. They have a lot of cheap labor and supposedly the engineers on this project worked 14 hours a day with no weekends and no holidays with three sets of construction workers each laboring on 8-hour shifts, 24 hours a day to the get this done. The democratic process and little things like labor laws and debates over congressional funding would never allow us to accomplish anything like this anytime soon. But it is obviously in the realm of possibility, because, as you can see…it’s been done.

As for us, we plod along a little more slowly but there has been progress. Back in April, President Obama announced a high speed rail strategy plan. My new favorite web site, infrastructurist.com, has all the details. In a nutshell, this is the first-ever White House endorsed national rail plan in American history. It calls for an initial $8 billion in funding. Turns out Congress is only going to spend $2 billion in 2010, but that’s ok. It’s the first time this much money has been allocated to improving America’s rail systems and it appears these will be annual investments so more funds will be on the way.

….the administration will be spending its funds on the existing Congressionally-designated corridors, which include lines in the Pacific Northwest, California, Texas, the Gulf Coast, Florida, the Southeast, the Midwest, Pennsylvania, New York, and Northern New England. The report, unlike previous federal descriptions of high-speed rail lines, actually endorses connecting these corridors with one another, something that had been left out of previous DOT [Department of Transportation] reports.

There are critics, of course. Here’s an articulate argument against spending this kind of money on trains from the Heritage Foundation’s Ronald D. Utt. He argues there’s actually much less here than meets the eye. First, this could be a windfall for the nation’s freight railroads because a lot of the track needed to run these trains is already owned by them and they’d be in for a ton of federal subsidies to allow passenger trains on their territory. Plus, he maintains, “high speed” is a misnomer. To build a truly high-speed rail system you’d have to start from scratch and build completely new tracks. He notes, for example, that the Acela goes 150 mph for only a 35- mile stretch between New York and Washington and that it actually averages 80 mph because of roadbed deficiencies and existing rail congestion on the Northeast Corridor.

Since a lot of track around the country is in similar condition, high-speed rail in the U.S. will never truly be that high-speed unless a truly astronomical sum of cash is put out to build an entirely new rail infrastructure.

Even if the tracks were in great shape, our friends at the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute would never endorse such a thing anyway because they’re not that hot on government spending on much of anything.

But, hey, as long as we’re going to be throwing cash around like drunken sailors for everything under the sun anyway- why not an investment in rail systems? It creates jobs. It builds new modes of transportation that can help wean us off fuel-guzzling cars and airplanes. Honestly, do you really want to fly that much anyway, these days? Anxious to sit next to a guy with a bomb in his underpants? Can’t wait to put on a strip show for TSA workers when you walk through the new explosives detectors they’re going to be putting up?

Seriously, the future of transportation is not the automobile, the airplane or those flying scooters we used to see on the Jetsons. Look at China, Japan, Germany, France and England. The future there, is now. And it’s riding on high-speed rail.

Remembering the week’s events so you don’t have to!

Monday 12/14/09

♦ The week starts off with a bang that quickly becomes a whimper. President Obama invites the heads of American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo to the White House for a stern lecture on how those who have received so much from the taxpayers might want to start thinking about actually giving back a little. Three of the executives miss the meeting because the NY-DC Shuttle is fogged in at La Guardia. So much for respect for the Presidency. Couldn’t they have spent the night before in Washington? I understand Amtrak has a fine train service from Penn Station to Union Station. They did call in, though. How considerate.

♦ The Climate Change conference in Copenhagen gets crazy as developing nations quarrel with developed nations, protestors get rowdy and consensus on much of anything begins to melt like the polar ice cap.

♦ The global consulting firm, Accenture, ends its six-year relationship with Tiger Woods saying he’s no longer “the right representative” for them after the events of the past couple of weeks. Gillette begins backing away too.

♦ Something’s fishy at the Waterbury and Wallingford, Connecticut Post offices; seems managers there are so overwhelmed by the amount of holiday mail they’re being inundated with- that they’ve taken to hiding it. Workers get caught stuffing letters, cards and packages into closets and unused rooms. The problem has now been corrected.

♥ The Sun newspaper publishes an exclusive photo of Elin Nordegren (Mrs. Tiger Woods) filling up an SUV at a gas station. There’s something missing. The wedding ring on her left hand.

Tuesday 12/15/09

♦ The Medicare buy-in dies an ignominious death. Independent Connecticut Senator, Joe Lieberman, says he won’t support it even though just three months earlier he had been taped by a local news organization in his state as saying it was a reasonable alternative to a public option. He tells the New York Times he began to get suspicious of the plan when liberal, Democratic NY Congressman, Anthony Weiner, said he loved it. Note to liberals: next time there’s legislation you need passed through the Senate, pretend you hate it.

♥ President Obama, campaigning for tax credits people can get for weatherizing their homes, declares that insulation is “sexy.” I suppose that can be true depending on who’s doing the insulating and what they’re wearing.

♦ Uh-oh. Can it possibly get any worse for Tiger Woods? The New York Times reports the doctor who treated his bum knee last year is under investigation for giving human growth hormone to some of his patients. Tiger’s agent tells people to back off- he’s never used performance enhancing drugs. Apparently, the doc visited Tiger’s home on four different occasions to perform a procedure in which a patient’s own blood is put through a centrifuge to separate out the platelets that are then injected to an area of injury to promote faster healing. The PGA backs Tiger and releases a statement saying that they’ve seen nothing in the reporting that would indicate he’s been in violation of their anti-doping policies.

♥ Considering the consensus that Tiger really would be finished if it turns out he used PED’s, finally, some welcome news for Woods. He is now tied to mistress #14. Yawn.

Wednesday 12/16/09

♦ Time magazine names Federal Reserve Chief, Ben Bernanke the Person of the Year for saving the American economy. Millions crowd the streets as the chanting starts out quietly at first, then into a full roar, “Bernanke, Bernanke Bernanke!” Kudos to Time, though. Instead of picking somebody interesting like Sarah Palin or Tiger Woods or Joe Lieberman, folks who might actually sell magazines- they go for the one guy guaranteed to put you to sleep at the mere mention of his name. Readers be damned- who needs ‘em!

♦ Politico.com reports that New York Democratic Senator, Charles Schumer, called a flight attendant a “bitch” as the DC to NY shuttle was about to take off earlier this week. Seems he was delaying the pull-back from the gate by talking on his cell phone. Obviously, the stewardess had no idea who she was dealing with. There is not a human being alive who has ever succeeded in getting Charles Schumer to stop talking.

♦ The Associated Press names Tiger Woods- Athlete of the Decade.

Thursday, December 17, 2009:

♦ New polling is out from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. The basic results- A pox on both their houses. Support for Democrats has plummeted but the numbers are not translating to Republican gains. What an opportunity for a legitimate 3rd party candidate. Lou Dobbs- take out the hair spray and straighten that tie.

♦ And the numbers show Americans aren’t so thrilled about health care reform either. Only 32% say it’s a good idea; 47% think it’s a bad idea.

♥ A new poll also finds 42% of Americans now have a negative view of Tiger Woods. Clearly, we are in need of a new 3rd party golfer of some kind. What’s Ron Paul’s handicap?

♦ The heavyweights begin arriving at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton says the U.S. will participate in the creation of a $100 billion global fund that poor countries can use to adapt to climate change. It’s predicated on China presenting plans on how they will cut carbon emissions. The Chinese agree to a dialogue. The first glimpse of progress. Nations are now talking about talking in the future.

♦ Lots of news from the NFL. Sad, great and weird. Cincinnati Bengal’s wide receiver Chris Henry dies after falling out of the bed of a pick-up truck in an apparent domestic dispute. The Washington Redskins get rid of an inept General Manager and hire the son of the legendary George Allen. The St. Louis Rams cancel practice as numerous players come down with the H1N1, Swine flu virus.

♥ ABC News quotes sources as saying Elin will 100% divorce Tiger.

Friday, December 18, 2009:

♦ President Obama addresses the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. This was the site of the humiliating experience when Chicago was turned down as the choice for the 2016 Olympic games. It is now the site for the humiliating experience of no significant action he is seeking being taken to address global climate change. I confidently predict it will be a long, long time before Obama humiliates himself in Copenhagen again. There is a late update on this story. No legally binding agreement- but some headway made as the President literally burst into a meeting of Chinese and other international leaders and forced them into at least an agreement that recognizes there’s a problem to be dealt with and prompts what amounts to voluntary agreement to reduce carbon emmissions. Not a total humiliation after all. But I still don’t think he’s going to back to Copenhagen any time soon. Too many painful memories.

♦ Avatar hits the theatres; all 2 hours and 40 minutes of it. Good reviews abound. More details emerge on what a ground-breaking film it is; 15 years in the making and involving the invention of new technologies like facial recognition cameras that enable human emotions to be uncannily portrayed by animated characters. A 3-D experience that immerses audiences into a completely foreign and highly textured world instead of the usual stuff-coming-at-you-from-the-screen-making-you-feel-like you-need-to-duck approach. It’s long hyphenated sentences like this that doomed my career as a film critic.

♦ Finally, I completed my Christmas shopping! My son, Charlie Garcia, arrives in New York for the holidays next Tuesday and I have just been named head of the Newscast division for National Public Radio, starting in February. Merry Christmas, Charlie- Daddy has a job.

News from the U.S. Senate last night is that there will be no public option of any kind in the health care reform bill, not even the compromise Medicare-buy-in at age 55. It is, apparently, the only way to get the 60 votes necessary for passage, including that of Independent Connecticut Senator, Joe Lieberman. As I look into my clouded but still discernible crystal ball, I see the following wire service report on the final vote a couple of weeks from now:

Senate Passes Historic Health Reform Bill

By Scoop McNews
Associated Syndicate Writer

WASHINGTON (AS) – Taking an important step toward Congressional passage of a landmark health care reform bill, the U.S. Senate voted 60 to 40 late last night to approve a series of controversial amendments to give Democrats and the White House a victory in what has been a tortured path toward final passage, featuring numerous last-minute compromises.

The measure contains a provision that would declare December 25th, National Insurance Company Appreciation Day, garnishes wages to create a special fund to assist the beleaguered insurance industry, and allows insurance companies to raise premiums up to 35% during all months that end with an “R.” The bill also creates a national ambulance service under a new Department of Emergency Vehicles, with fleets of fuel-efficient hybrid cars specifically designated to transport poor Americans to hospital emergency rooms for all illnesses, ranging from common colds to heart attacks.

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Schreid, (D, Nevada) hailed the compromises as difficult but necessary steps to ensure a bill would be on the President’s desk by New Year’s Day. “It’s really not that important what the bill actually contains,” said Schreid at an early morning Capitol Hill news conference. “What matters is what the bill is called and it is clearly labeled in great big letters, ‘The Health Reform Act of 2009.”

Senator Joseph Schlieberman (I, Connecticut), the key and 60th vote for the historic legislation, proclaimed that he was “somewhat pleased,” at the final outcome. “I would like to have seen some additional measures to assist the downtrodden insurance companies of my state, but in the end, in the interests of both this historic legislation and my legacy as the single most important member of the world’s greatest deliberative body, I felt it important to give a little for the sake of compromise.”

Pressed by reporters on what elements of the bill he was unhappy with, Schlieberman would not be specific. “Look, what I think of when I go to bed at night, is the poor insurance company executive, holed up in his lonely estate in suburban Hartford, who himself cannot get a good night’s sleep, worried that he will not meet stockholder expectations of 200% annual profits. No American should go to bed worried at night,” said the Connecticut lawmaker.

Asked what possible chance there might be that the House would approve the Senate version of the bill, Schlieberman was optimistic. “This will be hammered out behind closed doors in the Conference Committee and I have been assured I will be able to remain in the spotlight by snagging a spot on that committee, giving me and my state unprecedented influence in whatever machinations and late night, last-second further compromises will be necessary to pass this important piece of legislation.”

The news conference was interrupted momentarily when Senator Russ Schfeingold, (D, Wisconsin) lunged at Senator Schlieberman with a scalpel, yelling, “Here’s a special medical device, just for you, Schlieberman!” U.S. Capitol Police stopped the scuffle before there were any injuries that would have caused any medical claims to be filed under the Congressional health insurance program that was amended last night to eliminate all co-pays and deductibles.
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Robert Garcia tweets at garciamedialife

Remembering the week’s events so you don’t have to!

Monday 12/7/09

♦ The week starts off with welcome news for millions of parents. Zhu Zhu pets will not kill their children after all. Over the weekend, a California product-rating web site had claimed the hit toy of the Christmas season contained high levels of a fire retardant called antimony that can cause heart and lung problems with chronic exposure. The Consumer Product Safety Commission issues a statement saying- nuh uh (paraphrasing). Turned out GoodGuide had conducted faulty testing that failed to meet government standards-the antimony levels were fine. Officially, parents are cleared to return to not finding the toys at stores. The loveable furry rodents that are supposed to sell for $10 a piece continue selling online for $100.

♥ Tiger Wood’s wife reportedly moves out of their Florida home.

♦ The Gallup polling organization’s daily EKG of the President’s approval ratings drops below 50%. He is now down to 47%, among the lowest approval numbers for a new President in modern history. Pundits with White House connections say Obama advisors liken the situation to the Reagan administration’s first term when the nation was in the deep recession that effectively ended the hyper-inflation of the Carter years but at a high cost to millions of newly unemployed. The economy eventually recovered and so did Reagan’s initially bad poll numbers. Fox News trumpets the Gallup figures with serious fervor. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs responds that the White House pays no attention to poll numbers unless they’re good. Ok, he didn’t really say that last part.

♥ The number of women reported to have had affairs with Tiger Woods reaches seven.

Tuesday 12/8/09

♦ The big Climate Conference is underway in Copenhagen. “Climategate” enters the public lexicon in a big way as tens of thousands begin wondering why all scandals have to be named “gate.” Stolen e-mails and files from a British climate research center suggest temperature data may have been unethically manipulated. Representatives from a country with only a small stake in the debate over limiting carbon emissions officially raise the issue at the conference. Delegates from oil-rich Saudi Arabia declare the scandal raises serious questions about the basic premise behind the theory of global warming. Go ahead; take a moment to connect those last two sentences.

♥ Photos of Tiger Wood’s mother-in-law being wheeled into an ambulance on a stretcher at 2:30 in the morning becomes breaking news on all the cable networks. Quickly scrambled reporters breathlessly note the incredible irony that she has been taken to the same hospital where Tiger had been treated after his single-car accident. She was released the next day. For some reason, she had been experiencing stress.

♦ The Transportation Security Administration messes up big-time. Employees post TSA manuals online as part of the contract solicitation process. Not ordinarily a problem, except that sensitive details about airport security procedures that were supposed to be redacted- weren’t. Turns out the TSA employees thought they had hidden the classified stuff by covering the words in black. They should have actually deleted them. Apparently, clever, tech-savvy whiz kids can see right through the blackened segments in PDF files and soon the sensitive material makes its way onto the internet. Among other things, we now know what a CIA security credential looks like, that TSA workers don’t inspect wheelchairs or prosthetic devices, and that when it gets really busy at airports they only have to look at 20% of checked bags for explosives. This is why I take trains whenever possible.

♦ Monster waves hit Hawaii and surfers go nuts. San Clemente, California’s Greg Long, rides what is described as a massive, jaw-dropping 25-footer to a perfect score of 100 winning $55,000 at the prestigious 25th anniversary Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau contest on the North Shore of Oahu.

♥ The number of women linked to Tiger Woods reaches 10.

Wednesday 12/9/09

♦ Hump day is a busy news day, indeed. The President delivers a speech at the Brookings Institution in which he outlines tax cuts and other incentives to help small businesses both hire and invest. Since small businesses hire two-thirds of the American work force, some people see this as a good thing. The loyal opposition, which usually supports tax cuts for small businesses, objects loudly because the White House wants to pay for it with bank bail-out money that has been paid back faster than expected. They argue the $200 billion should go toward paying down the huge deficit.  I pull out my handy calculator and put on my old-fashioned green accountant visor-thing.  Let’s see, divide the $200 billion by the national debt which is currently $12,086,118,896,943.  Convert to percentage.  <Insert sound of fingers busily pressing calculator keys> Ah ha!   Instead of tax cuts for small businesses so they can hire more people, we can take that money and reduce the deficit by 1.65%.   Only 98.35% to go!  Good deal!

♥ It is reported that national television ads that featured Tiger Woods have vanished from the airwaves and have not been broadcast since November 29th.

♦ The upper Midwest is hit hard by a massive winter storm that dumps one to three feet of snow and then moves eastward, eventually hitting New England. Buffalo gets buffaloed as it gets both the initial storm and then lake-effect snow later in the week.

♦ Five workers with the Transportation Security Administration are put on leave while an investigation is conducted into how they could be so clueless. See Tuesday, 12/8.

♥ A CNN/Gallup poll is released that finds Tiger Woods’ unfavorability rating has gone up from 9% to 25%. No one seems to notice that a married guy with two kids implicated in ten adulterous relationships still has a higher approval rating than the President of the United States.

♦ Sarah Palin writes an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post citing climategate, argues there is no consensus on global warming and concludes the President should boycott the Copenhagen conference. Liberal activists and some scientists criticize the Washington Post for publishing the article. They apparently have not heard that nobody actually reads newspapers anymore and that Sarah Palin’s Facebook friends list exceeds the paper’s total circulation. Sarah Palin has 1,097,360 Facebook friends. The Washington Post’s daily circulation is 637,180. On Sundays, it’s 890,163. I checked.

♦ Senate Democrats reach agreement on health care but nobody can quite figure out at first whether a public option is in or out. Turns out the compromise proposal would allow people to start paying for and getting Medicare coverage two years from now; minimum age-55. Since I am 53, I think, “Wow, how cool is that?”

♥ The number of women associated with Tiger Woods reaches 11.

Thursday, 12/10/09

♦ Barack Obama becomes the first sitting American President since Woodrow Wilson to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. It is widely accepted he’d been given the honor as a largely symbolic gesture for the change he represents rather than for anything he’s accomplished in a mere 11 months in the oval office. Awkward. But not really, because Obama starts the speech by openly admitting the accomplishments of previous recipients like Nelson Mandela dwarf anything he’s done thus far in his young Presidency.

He also accepted the PEACE prize one week after committing 30,000 additional U.S. troops to the war in Afghanistan. Awkward. But not really, because the President deals with the issue head-on in his much lauded speech in Oslo, Norway. He reminds his largely European audience that the non-violent movement would not have defeated Nazi Germany and that you can’t sit down at a table and negotiate with Al-Qaeda terrorists. He concludes sometimes you have to make war to find peace. Amazingly enough, the speech receives positive reviews from Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan and Sarah Palin. To underscore his point, the President later reminds attendees of the ceremonies that the founder of the Peace Prize, Alfred Noble, invented dynamite.

♦The Russians finally fess up. An amazing and slightly creepy light display over the skies of pre-dawn Norway on Wednesday were not the harbinger of an alien invasion. Turns out it was a Bulava missile test-fired by the Dmitry Donskoi submarine in the White Sea that failed spectacularly. What startled residents of Norway were seeing was the rocket spiraling down to earth through a haze of leaking fuel, resulting in an awesome and scary viewing experience. For the record, the Bulova missile is one of the most pathetic in the annals of modern rocketry. It has failed in 9 of 13 launch attempts. It occurred to me this would make a great pyrotechnic device for a truly memorable fireworks celebration. Until a friend pointed out that an exploding missile might hurt people. This confirms I would have made a horrible event planner.

♥ Tiger Woods’ attorneys go to court to pre-empt the publishing of nude pictures of the world’s greatest golfer/most questionable decision-maker.

Friday, 12/11/09

♦ The first reviews are in from pre-screenings of the new movie Avatar that is officially released a week  from today.  The epic, whose characters took 15 years to develop and whose total production and marketing costs exceed $350 million- is apparently pretty good.  KTRA movie critic, Sam Rubin predicts at least three Oscars including a Best Picture nomination.  That would be about $116 million per statue.

♦ It’s reported Democrats are poised to vote to increase the national debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion before the end of the year so they can get it out of the way and not have to vote to raise it again before the 2010 elections.  What an outrage!  Why you could produce and market 5,142 Avatar’s for that amount of money.

♥  The Sun newspaper reports exclusively that Tiger Woods tells his wife, Elin that he will do “anything” to keep their marriage together.  She has reportedly agreed to do so for the sake of the children.  Just one condition.  He would be on the shortest leash in the history of leashes.  No more golf tour unless Elin can come along and until the kids are old enough to tag along too.  The first-born, Sam, is 2.  The new kid, Charlie, is 10 months old.  Looks like Tiger is going to be taking a few years off.    Things should die down by then.  Perhaps.

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Robert Garcia tweets at garciamedialife.

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Really, it’s not that bad an idea and it does appear to have support out there; a day in which we just stop ourselves and others from bitching.  Kind of like a day riding the Quiet Car on the Acela.  Missouri Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver has sent out a letter soliciting support from colleagues to designate the day before Thanksgiving as Complaint-Free Wednesday.

Ironically, conservative media wiz, Andrew Breitbart and his Big Government web site report this story in a rather bitchy way.  They clearly will not be getting with the program if this bill becomes law.  They don’t like the idea, think it’s an example of Congressional idiocy and argue the times are too difficult to waste effort on such ridiculous declarations.

I think Congressman Cleaver’s letter is actually rather charming.  Here are some excerpts from the copy Big Government published:

From time to time, we all experience anxiety, frustration, stress, and regret. And often, we respond to these feelings with a criticism or a complaint. Regrettably, complaining keeps people stuck on current problems, inhibiting them from thinking constructively to find solutions. Research has also shown that complaining can be harmful to one’s emotional and physical health; relationships; and can limit professional career success.

Well, yeah, ok, that’s not so bad.

In the spirit of hope, optimism and positivity, and in honor of its efforts to encourage people to look forward, not backward, the group a Complaint Free World is to be recognized. A Complaint Free World’s goal, in fact, is to motivate 1% of the global population (about 60 million people) to become complaint free.

Setting aside that I don’t think “positivity” is actually a word (spell-checker is totally freaking out over it); this seems a fairly modest goal- just one in a hundred people not bitching.   The letter goes on to point out that the resolution is revenue neutral and is a good way of teeing up Thanksgiving; you go from being not bitchy to being grateful.

A Google search of “Stop Complaining” yields the following results:

Amazon.com is selling A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted.

Petitiononline.com urges people to, uh, sign a petition.  It’s frankly, just a tad angry:

If you are tired of: polotics-vegans-environmentallists-colleages-bosses-minorities-nascar fans-sports-paris hilton-feminists-your local mayor-gay rights-drugs-cops-video games-peta-disney-stupid lawsuits-abnormally obese people-maricle diets-mcdonalds-parents-in-laws, then sign here and shut them up!

Propeller.com has an identity crisis; it republishes the scathing Big Government article criticizing Complaint Free Wednesday, followed by another Google entry dating back to August in which the same website promotes “best tips on how to stop complaining and criticizing.”

And my personal favorite, from consumerwarningnetwork.com, is an article headlined: Crybaby Doctors Want Patients to Stop Complaining. Apparently doctors are making people sign contracts that prohibit their patients from making snarky comments on-line.  If true, it seems evident that even Doctors are joining the stop bitching movement.

If not this year, possibly next year, but I think it is clear- the stop-bitching revolution is gathering serious momentum.   And it would seem only right that the Friday after Thanksgiving be designated National Complaint Day.  Sort of fitting for Black Friday, don’t you think?  After all that not complaining/being grateful stuff we get to vent our gathering rage in one gigantic, national and communal bitch-fest!