Voters are concerned about the economy. Oh…and the war in Iraq. Both are connected at the hip.

With G.W. Bush’s lisping and slurring, I imagine him sitting on his favorite barstool, nursing from a glass, and talking to the bartender how someday he’d outdo his father. John McCain sits next to him, toasting and soaking up all W’s wisdom. The bartender only half listens to W’s drivel while turning an ear to the football score on the TV.

With similar interest, many Americans listened to his final State of the Union speech.

To change his view on Iraq, W would have to acknowledge it as a mistake. An error like this has so far cost the US well over 4,000 soldiers—W’s Admin counts war casualties by distorted criteria—as well as several hundred thousand innocent civilian lives.

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I sat down with Michael Levine, founder of the public relations firm Levine Communications, to get some PR advice for the 2008 elections. Hollywood stars balance fame and fortune but not without the help of good pr that can cover up bad press and promote a star’s best qualities. The world of Hollywood glam and appeal seems to heavily mirror that of the modern political campaign: advertisement and a candidate’s character have a large impact on electability.

On the current Democratic nomination race, Levine doesn’t think the race is dragging on too long perhaps because he knows things can change at any minute in such a volatile industry. The Democrats have time to recover before November as long as there are no major incidents such as the recent Reverend Wright factor. Levine does note that an important factor in the elections will be experience which McCain and Clinton rely heavily on to boost support.

But from an outside public relations perspective he believes the experience factor will actually favor Senator Barack Obama and not the others.

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Who’s to say which religion is better than the next? Most often a person ends up following a particular religion by location or by birth.

What are the chances that someone growing up in Afghanistan would attend a synagogue rather than a mosque? Would someone raised in Peru wager his chips for eternal life with anything but the Catholic Church?

In America it’s often considered shameful to criticize religion. We’re supposed to accept religions without question. Who would dare publicly highlight the flaws in Judaism? Many cringe at the dreadful risk of being called anti-Semitic even when discussing the role of AIPAC.

Who dares to criticize Evangelicals or Catholics? Mormons? What about those faithful to the Book of Mormon which Angel Moroni handed down to Joseph Smith as a revelation in 1830?

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Fear drives people to dogma, dogma drives people to stop thinking, both deliver people to leaders who promise to protect and to do good but will most likely do neither.

“Abortion is the most important issue on the table.” Fred explains to his group. He is a Bible study class leader at a local Catholic church.

“But, Fred,” I interject, “you know this war in Iraq is killing thousands of people, innocent civilians and U.S. soldiers.”

“We must stomp out abortion and our President Bush – well, he’s pro-life.” Fred goes on. “And John McCain, he’s picking up the torch. He’s carrying the only light in these dark days. God’s only beacon.”

“But Fred,” I repeat, “all those people in the war, they’re losing their lives. And abortion’s been around since before King Tut. The Bible doesn’t say a word about it, talks about the value of life. And, Jesus, wasn’t he the Prince of Peace?”

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Yes She Can. Senator Hillary Clinton managed to get a much needed victory in Pennsylvania yesterday against Senator Barack Obama. Victory meant she needed to win by at least 8%, and she managed to pull 55% of the vote to Obama’s 45%. Clinton’s base supporters make up a large portion of the state’s population where blue collar voters gave Clinton the win. Another major factor was the large number of Catholics in Pennsylvania who favored Clinton by 70%. Senator Clinton was favored among female and older voters while Senator Obama remained stronger with younger and new voters. Obama outspent Clinton in the state by three times as much and his efforts do show in the polls because there were high numbers of newly registered voters that voted in his favor.

So how do the results from yesterday’s primary change the race to the nomination? They don’t. Senator Clinton is claiming she will fight and she can win. Barack Obama is claiming he is still victorious overall and will win in November. The same arguments both candidates previously made are still valid and will continue as they move ahead to Indiana and North Carolina.

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In a crazy time people need reassurance, people need support, and America often falls into crazy times.

“You’re reading the Bible. That’s a great book,” I say as I sit down to work in a café.

I smile and go about my business, nose plunged in my papers.

“Yes, we should all read it, especially now,” a man says with a serious look. “You know the day is coming, the day of the Rapture when God will begin the End of Times and make His judgments.”

Experience tells me, I risk getting buckled into a long discussion on the Beast with seven heads and ten horns (Rev. 17:2), the Whore of Babylon, and the whole bucket of Christian eschatology.

As a big word, eschatology is not one you’d use at the supermarket while buying beer and pretzels. In Christian theology, eschatology is the study of the destiny of mankind according to the purposes of God.

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Imagine for just a moment you are a different person - a person whose only possible life in his home country is one of extreme poverty and hardships. Continue to imagine that you, this person, one day makes the terrifying decision to seek a better life; to move to a foreign land, regardless the fact you will reside in this new land as an illegal immigrant.

After a long and trying time you adapt to your new and strange surroundings. You struggle and somehow manage to survive in a place governed by a foreign culture and dominated by a completely foreign tongue. You meet a woman, and become engaged. One day your fiance tells you she is pregnant and 9 months later the long awaited joyous day arrives as your wife goes into labor. Still unable to afford a car you both slowly and cautiously start the walk to the nearest hospital. As you both approach the hospital entrance your wife suddenly collapses and you are both rushed inside as you are left to anxiously wait any news on the status of your wife and child. Finally the doctor approaches and to your utter disbelief delivers the most unexpected, utterly terrifying news - your wife and child did not make it.

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While Franklin Roosevelt provided a plan for the United States’ long-term energy needs, George Bush has instituted a blood tax to provide for a short-term solution to guarantee the nation’s oil supply.

Riding on the USS Murphy, a tall, black-bearded Arab king anticipated his important meeting. His bodyguards, fierce-looking men armed with daggers on their belts, assisted him because battle wounds had long ago weakened his legs. The destroyer carrying these men met the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake where three admirals and F.D. Roosevelt waited to greet the Bedouin monarch. After boarding the U.S. Navy cruiser, the Arab monarch grasped the U.S. leader’s hand in a firm grip. The handshake sealed the destiny of two countries–Saudi Arabia and the USA–and shaped the course of events in the Middle East for decades to come.

F.D.R. and King Saud met on February 14, 1945. Roosevelt’s actions that day demonstrated how far and how rapidly American strategic thinking about the Gulf region had evolved during the war. Before 1942, the U.S. government had no official interest in Saudi Arabia, even though Standard Oil Company of California had struck oil there in 1938 and had created a village of American geologists, drillers and engineers to deliver the oil to global markets.

But the war had consumed huge amounts of petroleum, thus awakening F.D.R. to the dwindling U.S. domestic oil reserves. He saw the long-term value of the Saudi fields, the only ones in the Middle East where an American company held exclusive production rights. At the same time the U.S. Armed Forces, fighting a global war, wanted an airbase someplace in the Middle East that was not under British or French control.

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By now anyone that still pays attention to the 2008 democratic primaries has probably heard Senator Barack Obama called “elitist” and “ignorant” for his comments on rural America being bitter. These comments seem like a potentially damaging gaffe, a gaffe being inappropriate words or actions that can damage a candidate’s support quickly and possibly end victory hopes. A small reminder: at a recent fundraiser, Obama said it was difficult to win the support of working-class voters because they are frustrated by a declining economy. He is quoted as saying that “they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Despite his possible good intentions, his word choice was a bad one. These comments seem to be another hit to his campaign efforts, following the harsh criticism of Obama’s pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright for his racist and anti-American comments.

In a fundraising email McCain manager Rick Davis said to supporters that “these hard working men and women aren’t ‘bitter.’ They love their country, their faith, their family and their traditions.” Clinton’s campaign is also taking advantage with numerous attacks on his recent misstep. Although the comments may not effect his current Democratic nomination, it will cause him trouble in the November election. Obama’s recent comments will raise questions by independents and blue-collar voters, essential support for presidential hopefuls.

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“What are you writing?” he asks inevitably. “You’re here every morning early.”

Running on caffeinated fuel, all synaptic pistons firing, I’m writing away, polishing up my next novel, The Sufi’s Ghost, and what happens? The stranger sits nearby. I keep my head to my laptop screen, taking cover. The stranger always comes in, white guy with the curly afro gray hair and suit, no tie.

“Just work,” I say. Impromptu conversations at Starbucks always carry the opportunity costs…a waste of perfectly tuned caffeinated inspiration humming along. It’s never smart to admit to any creative endeavor, not here in Orange County, California where every man, woman and child engages in nose-bleed unbridled enterprise.

Many a corporate professional speeds down the wide boulevards here, chasing after that promotion through the office political maze. Corporate automatons abound, wearing their pay checks in fine German cars. Engines of our economic strength, they live in the fast lane with hardly a smile, only a denial that they’re part of the middle class. Delusional nouveaux riches, they vote right-wing just to feel like they’re part of that class of real wealth.

“You’re here early too,” I say. “What is it you do?”

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Hailing a cab is one of those techniques New Yorkers have learned from a young age. If they moved to Los Angeles, they’d have trouble using their skills. One unique fact about the bustling town of Los Angeles is that unlike most metropolitan areas, cabs are not coloring the busy streets yellow. The reason there are so few cabs in the busy streets of this city is because they can’t stop.

Contrary to popular myth, it is not illegal to hail a cab but it is illegal for cabs to impede traffic or park illegally. Since almost all areas in Los Angeles are notorious for heavy traffic, taxi cabs find it difficult to stop without risk of large fines. Cabs will still pull over in these areas, but it is not without risk which many drivers are not willing to take. Taxi drivers are claiming that these regulations are hurting business and making it difficult to make ends meet. General Manager of Yellow Cab of Los Angeles claims that his drivers spend around 60% of their time waiting at designated stands. One cab driver had accumulated over $300 of tickets for stopping in a red zone and dropping off a disabled passenger in a bus zone. Parking enforcement hands out numerous tickets to cab drivers for small violations; sometimes the fines are larger than the earned fare making it hard for cab drivers to earn a living. That doesn’t even include the rising cost of gasoline that is hurting all businesses. As Los Angeles grows in population and traffic, there seems a benefit to creating a taxi-cab culture similar to other large cities.

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