Ever Heard of Oz?

I received a phone call this morning from this fellow.

I've no idea if he's going to enter the race for governor or any other race for that matter; but I was impressed with his overall grasp of things.

Spiffy background too;
take a look:

R. NELSON GRIEBEL

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY

Oz Griebel has served since April of 2001 as President and Chief Executive Officer of the MetroHartford Alliance, which is the City’s Chamber of Commerce and the Region’s economic development leader. Immediately preceding his appointment, he consulted to the administration of Governor John Rowland and the Connecticut Legislature on the creation of a statewide transportation strategy. From February of 1999 through June of 2000, Griebel served as a Director and President and Chief Operating Officer of MacDermid, Inc., an international specialty chemicals company headquartered in Waterbury, Connecticut and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to 1999, Griebel worked for over 22 years with the then BankBoston Corporation in various finance, legal, marketing, and operations positions, concluding his service as President of the Bank’s businesses in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts from 1993 through 1999. Griebel also served as a Director of Tallan, a Glastonbury based e-commerce company that was acquired by CMGI in 2000.

Griebel’s public sector involvement includes having served as Chairman of the Connecticut Transportation Strategy Board which developed a multi-modal, comprehensive, 10 year strategy for funding and implementing a modern transportation system for the State. He also served as an initial member of the Board of Directors of Bradley International Airport. Over the years, Griebel has been involved in a variety of organizations, many of which deal with the economic vitality of Connecticut and are listed on the attached page.

Griebel received an A.B. from Dartmouth College (1971) and a J.D. from Suffolk University School of Law (1977). Prior to joining BankBoston in 1976, he had coaching and teaching assignments at the high school and collegiate levels. His wife, Kirsten, is involved in a variety of area activities, including serving as a founder and Chair of the independent political party, Simsbury Citizens First, and as a member of the Board of the Connecticut Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

It gets better - he's been paying his civic dues for years:

CORPORATE BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

MacDermid, Inc. – Specialty chemicals company listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Tallan, Inc. - an Internet and e-commerce professional services company acquired by CMGI in 2000 for $1.2 billion
World Business Capital

OTHER BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

Current Affiliations

American Chamber of Commerce Executives
Connecticut Institute for the 21st Century (Chairman 1995-2001)
Connecticut Science Center
eHealth Connecticut
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston – Advisory Council
Hartford Hospital – Corporator
MetroHartford Alliance (CEO)
· Hartford Chamber of Commerce (CEO)
Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center - Corporator
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts (Chairman 2004-2009)

Past Affiliations

Ad Hoc Council on Regional Asset Districts (Past Chairman)
American Red Cross (Greater Hartford Chapter)
Bradley International Airport Board of Directors
Connecticut Business and Industry Association (Past Chairman)
Connecticut Transportation Strategy Board (Chairman)
The Hartford Club
Junior Achievement of Central Connecticut (Chairman)
The Mark Twain House
New Haven Leadership Council
Northwest Catholic High School (Chairman)
Riverfront Recapture (Chairman)
Transportation Summit 2000 (Co-Chairman)
United Way of the Central Naugatuck Valley (Annual Fund Chairman)
University of Hartford
Wadsworth Atheneum (Corporator)
The Waterbury Foundation
World Affairs Council
Yale-New Haven Hospital

HONORS AND AWARDS

Honorary Chairman of the Canon Greater Hartford Open, 1995
Hartford Courant Business Leader of the Year, 1995
Capitol Region Council of Governments Regional Leadership Award, 1996
Bridgeport Regional Business Council’s Regional Leadership Award, 1998
Distinguished Citizen Award of the Connecticut Rivers Council Boy Scouts of America, 1999
Hartford Business Journal Business Leader of the Year, 2001
Big Brothers/Big Sisters Gala Honoree Award, 2001


Whether this fellow enters politics at all is yet to be seen; but I'm sure most would agree he sounds like an interesting candidate for anything.

Chains We Can Believe In

Merry Christmas

Tiger Woods Mistress Plate Collection

Thanks Obama!

click for larger view

A message from Chris Coutu (R-47)

Representing the citizens of Connecticut is a great honor. I am proud to be an independent voice in a state with a legislative body that is addicted to deficit spending. This elected body is composed of a veto-proof Democratic majority that controls over 70% of the vote and the agenda. Seventy percent is a surprising number as our state is composed of 47% unaffiliated, 31% Democrat and 22% Republican registered voters. All this power in the hands of one party has resulted in a legislative representative body that is not representing our interests.

Hartford's 2009 lowlights:
• Raised 2 billion in new taxes and fees
• Provided no unfunded mandate relief for cities and towns
• Amassed 1 billion in new debt to pay for last year’s deficit
• Raided future revenue streams with 1.4 billion in “securitization”
• Utilized 500 million in revenue to be determined to present a “balanced” budget
• Attacked our constitutional rights with bills removing legal gun owners rights and pushing for committees to run church finances

Consequences:
• New billion dollar deficit
• Businesses closing and jobs leaving Connecticut
• Fitch and Moodys negative outlook on our bond ratings
• 800% increase in general fund debt payment from 1991
• Large cuts in town aid, which will result in property tax increases

Worst of all, citizens do not trust Hartford and once again feel they have been misled.

To prevent Hartford’s veto proof majority from delivering even more chaos, we need to take back our state. We need to remove legislators who put political promises over the best interests of our citizens and communities.

In order to accomplish this goal I need 500 signatures and campaign donations by December 31st. To support our effort please complete the form at www.coutu2010.com and donate between $5 and $100. Your support will help make a statement that we are a strong grass roots movement in support of your interests, not the special interests.

With your help, we will take back our Connecticut.

Sincerely,

Christopher D. Coutu
www.coutu2010.com
860.857.5762

State Represenative Coutu has dedicated his life to public service.

Not Politically Correct

General Motors Gets It

But the UAW remains a problem

Europeans zip around in modern Diesels that last forever and don't run, sound, smoke, or smell like the one's we remember from Mercedes 20 or 30 years ago. Make no mistake, the older Diesels were legendary. For decades they were the only vehicles sold in the US that could be expected to hit or exceed 250,000 miles with any regularity.

Left:
2010 Opel Insignia wagon - we won't be seeing this wagon and I only posted the photo to annoy you.

With 0-60 times running under 8 seconds and top speeds well over 100 - all while producing in excess of 30 mpg, it's understandable why vehicles equipped with Diesels would sell well where fuel can cost over $12.00 US per-gallon and speed limits either don't exist, or are both ignored and unenforced.
(Which should make you wonder where our liberty went.)

This Opel will see our shores next year as the
American built 2011 Buick Regal.
Right down to the brass tacks it'll be the same car,
save for the Buick badge.

Here's the good news.
This re-badged Opel won't be your grandfather's Buick; it's quick, enjoys a firmer ride than some previous versions and has received accolades throughout the automotive press for it's tight handling characteristics, fuel economy, superb ergonomics and innovative safety enhancements.

So far so good.
Here's what we won't see in the United States - none of the Diesels despite GM's U.S. surplus engine plant capacity, in fact of the nine power-plants available throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world, we'll get exactly Two.

(Click photo for larger version)

But why no wagon and no Diesels for Americans?

The United Auto Workers won't allow it. (??)
Somehow they're quite convinced that allowing Americans to buy and drive fuel efficient vehicles is not in their best interest. This simply defies all logic as either way the vehicles would be built here and by UAW workers.

In Europe, there are 113 vehicles for sale that get a combined 40 mpg while as of last year we had 2.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that nearly two-thirds of the 113 highly fuel-efficient models that are unavailable to American consumers are either made by U.S.-based automobile manufacturers or by foreign manufacturers with substantial U.S. sales operations, such as Nissan and Toyota.

“These cars sold in Europe meet or exceed U.S. safety standards, so there is no reason why they shouldn’t be made available to U.S. consumers,” said CSI (Civil Society Institute) President Pam Solo.

Update in response to our Fredericksburg, Virginia visitor (comment #1):
Even the DNC's own cable network, MS/NBC has reported on this over 2 years ago:
U.S. ‘stuck in reverse’ on fuel economy

As if we needed more evidence that the Democratic Party and their allies hate America.

Tip Of The Hat to WTIC 1080

WTIC Radio AM-1080 has put up a new Storm Center site that should
stashed away in everyone's bookmarks.
Take a look! http://stormcenter.wtic.com/





We tip our hat to a job well done!

Canadian Police Chase

They've got to be liberals.

No one else is this dumb.

A Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can't figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

"We're no longer a Christian nation."

"America is arrogant." - (Your wife even announced to the world,"America is mean-spirited." Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said, "America hasn't lived up to her ideals."

Which ones did you mean?
Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British?

Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War?

I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American.
If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president. You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes