106-Years-Old and Voting For Obama

From CNN: "Ann Nixon Cooper, 106 years old, has seen presidents come and go in her lifetime and has outlived most of them. On a sunny fall morning, she left her weathered but well-kept home in Atlanta, Georgia, to vote early — this time for Senator Barack Obama. Ann Nixon Cooper, 106 years old, lived during a time when blacks and women did not have the right to vote. The centenarian remembers a time not long ago when she was barred from voting because of her race. Now she hopes to see the day that Obama is elected as the nation's first Black president. 'I ain't got time to die,' Cooper said with a smile. 'Even if he didn't win, I was happy for him just to be nominated,' said the former socialite. 'The first Black president — isn't that something, at 106 years old?'"

I really hope Senator Obama wins just so people like Ann Nixon Cooper can see what was once thought impossible.

Obama Takes Hold of Race: Five Days to Go

Five days out and Senator Obama has wrested control of the presidential race with his disciplined style and Senator McCain is going to have to scramble to take it from him. And Obama is not letting up; consider the long day he had Wednesday. Framed by 30 minutes of primetime television where Obama did not even mention the words "John McCain." It was also masterfully executed. Senator McCain would never go on TV for 30 seconds at this stage of the race without mentioning Obama. But that was just a warm up for Obama. He followed the 30 minutes up with a late-night rally in Florida with former President Bill Clinton. The pair, introduced as 'the 42nd president and the next president,' took the stage to cheers from a crowd of 35,000.

Senator Obama highlighted not just himself but the idea he represents. It delivered a message on a tactical level, with solutions for all the hot-button issues, yet mostly it worked on an inspirational level; getting voters to believe in something bigger than themselves, which made Obama's candidacy possible in the first place.

Wednesday may not be the night he clinched anything, but it may end up being the night he made the turn for home. Six days before the election, Obama's team produced a 'shock and awe' Wednesday, throwing up a stunning number of assets at McCain. Every single line during those 30 minutes was something that the campaign knows works and appeals to those undecided voters. It was a highly competent, professional, performance. The very fact that they could go 28 minutes in and hit live to a campaign rally in Florida and right down to the final Obama/Biden logo even showed how much planning and detail went into it. One of the things the campaign knows is that the most optimistic presidential candidate always wins. It aired on seven network and cable stations. He effectively knocked on every door in the nation Wednesday night.

It was in keeping with Senator Obama's strategic plan this year: Make voters comfortable with the idea of him in the Oval Office while at the same time presenting him as a candidate who can connect with everyday, middle-class voters struggling through the toughest economic times in generations.

Senator Obama’s goal is to maximize face time on local news broadcasts and to cover as much ground as possible before he votes Tuesday in Chicago.

ROCK STAR OF U.S. CAR DESIGNERS

Ralph Gilles is an automobile designer who grew up in Montreal, Canada after his parents immigrated to New York from Haiti.

Gilles joined Chrysler in 1992. Currently he is Vice President of Jeep & Truck Design at the Chrysler Group. Gilles gained fame for leading the styling of the 2005 Chrysler 300.
Mr. Gilles designed the Chrysler 300 sedan and the Dodge Magnum wagon. Both vehicles helped Chrysler achieve a rare feat in Detroit: the division's operating profit surged to $1.3 billion in the first nine months of 2004 in contrast to a loss of $806 million in the period a year earlier.

Motor Trend Magazine named the Chrysler 300 its Car of the Year for 2005, ahead of 24 competitors including the Porsche 911, Lotus Elise, and BMW 6. Together, Gilles' cars led the way in an amazing turnaround for DaimlerChrysler.

For Ralph Gilles the creative spark appeared early. He was five years old, visiting his Aunt Gisele on Long Island, New York, and, like a lot of kids, drawing what he saw. What differentiated Gilles from the pack at that early age was the fact that his drawings were clear and made sense. "My aunt saw my sketches," Gilles recalls, "and she turned to her husband and said 'Hey Mike! My Nephew can draw! Give him some paper to draw on."

So he began sketching wherever he went, passing dull moments in school with fanciful drawings of cars and other modes of transport. At 15, Gilles wrote a letter to Chrysler head Lee Iacocca, asking what it would take to become a design artist for the giant car company. "And wow, they wrote me back," he said. "I was so impressed. They wrote giving the different names of colleges they hire from, and that was all I needed."

He was a bit disappointed that the letter came from Neal Walling, then vice president of design, instead of the legendary Iacocca himself. "But I felt a certain loyalty to Chrysler because they wrote me, and it changed my life."

He spent a semester in engineering school in Canada, but decided he'd rather draw. "Design is creative," Gilles said. "Engineering is like art work, but they're not the same. As designers, we are in charge of the way a car looks and the emotions you get when you look at it.

So he followed Walling's advice, attending the College of Art and Design in Detroit, which provides about 40 percent of the company's designers, and went to work for Walling after graduating in 1992. It did not take him long to work his way up the ranks, and in 2001 he took over Studio 3, in Auburn Hills, Mich., one of seven Chrysler design studios.

U.S. Citizens Overseas Support Obama

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Call Center Workers Walk Off Job in Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama

A STORY FROM TMP ELECTION CENTER
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary Senator McCain campaign script attacking Senator Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Senator Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger." Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave. The call center is Americall, located in Hobart, Indiana. "They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day." The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."

A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that "at least 30" workers had walked out after refusing to read the script. "We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger," this worker said. "I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting." This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."

The script coincided with a robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.

So what I am wondering is that if this is true, why isn’t the main street media carrying this story?

Maybe someone should tell Senator McCain to look at these people and see what it means to have standards and be honorable. He could learn a lot from them. And tell him that talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words.

These people put their jobs on the line. These are true American heroes.

49ers Interested in Condi Rice as Team President

The San Francisco 49ers have already made a coaching change this season. Now they apparently have their eyes on an even more high-profile front office move.

The 49ers have expressed interest in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a possible candidate for team president.
"If she's interested in talking to us, I'm interested in talking to her," one high-ranking 49ers official told NFL.com. Rice has expressed a desire to be an NFL team president as recently as last week, according to the report.
Ms. Rice has already indicated that she will return to Stanford University in January, a school where she served as provost from 1993-99, which would put her in the San Francisco Bay area. She has a long and documented interest in football, and has often been asked football questions during otherwise political interviews.