Ideas and subjects to enjoy life

Middle East Tourists Attractions - II

2008-06-15T00:42:00.000-07:00

The Pyramids of Egypt

There are no more famous ancient sites within Egypt, or for that matter elsewhere in the world, than the Great Pyramids at Giza. They are, without question, the icon most associated with the Egypt. They have been both the main destination for tourists, and a source of imaginative thought to the world for over three thousand years.
However, there are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt, many of which are relatively unknown to anyone who is not an ancient Egypt enthusiast. All but a very few are grouped around and near the City of Cairo, just south of the Nile Delta. Otherwise, only one royal pyramid is known in southern Egypt (at Abydos), that being the one built by Ahmose, founder of the 18th Dynasty and Egypt's New Kingdom. It may have also been the last royal pyramid built in Egypt.
For more information about The Pyramids of Egypt see the Official site of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism

Middle East Tourists Attractions - I

2008-06-10T18:40:00.001-07:00

Touristic site of the week.

Petra, Jordan - Undoubtedly the most famous attraction in Jordan is the Nabatean city of Petra, nestled away in the mountains south of the Dead Sea. Petra, which means "stone" in Greek, is perhaps the most spectacular ancient city remaining in the modern world, and certainly a must-see for visitors to Jordan and the Middle East.
The city was the capital of the Nabateans - Arabs who dominated the lands of Jordan during pre-Roman times- and they carved this wonderland of temples, tombs and elaborate buildings out of solid rock. The Victorian traveler and poet Dean Burgon gave Petra a description which holds to this day -"Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose-red city half as old as time." Yet words can hardly do justice to the magnificence that is Petra. In order to best savor the atmosphere of this ancient wonder, visit in the quiet of the early morning or late afternoon when the sandstone rock glows red with quiet grandeur.

The proposal for five super Tuesdays.

2008-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

The proposed five super Tuesdays one every month starting from Feb. and runs through June. It includes which state should vote on that day and the number of Eectoral Vote the state has. Every Super Tuesday will have an equal number of states and Eectoral Votes with the exception of DC which was added to Super Tuesday II to offset the Eectoral Votes.

Proposed November General Election
Super Tuesday I - Feb.
State	Eectoral Votes
Arkansas	6
California	55
Deleware	3
Maine	4
North Carolina	15
North Dakota	3
Nevada	5
South Carolina	8
West Virginia	5
Wyoming	3
Total	107
Super Tuesday II - Mar.
State	Eectoral Votes
District of Columbia	3
Hawaii	4
Kansas	6
Louisiana	9
Maryland	10
Nebraska	5
New Jersey	15
Oklahoma	7
Rhode Island	4
Tennessee	11
Texas	34
Total	108
Super Tuesday III - Apr.
State	Eectoral Votes
Alaska	3
Alabama	9
Connecticut	7
Idaho	4
Indiana	11
Mississippi	6
New York	31
Ohio	20
Utah	5
Washington	11
Total	107
Super Tuesday IV - May.
State	Eectoral Votes
Arizona	10
Florida	27
Massachusetts	12
Michigan	17
Minnesota	10
New Hampshire	4
New Mexico	5
Oregon	7
South Dakota	3
Virginia	13
Total	108
Super Tuesday V - Jun.
State	Eectoral Votes
Colorado	9
Georgia	15
Iowa	7
Illinois	21
Kentucky	8
Missouri	11
Montana	3
Pennsylvania	21
Vermont	3
Wisconsin	10
Total	108
Last Updated: 3/27/2008 8:45 PM

Last 5 US General Elections Review

2008-04-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

In this post, I will be looking at the November 2008 US General Election and what would’ve happened if the GE is held today based at the all information available including the last 5 years of the US General Election plus various national poll data and my own analysis.
I didn’t include the scenarios where Sen. McCain might run against Sen. Clinton or Sen. McCain might run against Sen. Obama for one simple reason. The information is a little complicated and won’t fit in one simple post. Therefore, for this analysis, this post assumes that it won’t really matter whose Democratic Party Nominee is.

Notes:
1. This post is “Work In Progress”.
2. Last updated: 4/9/2008.
3. States are sorted by State codes.
4. EV = Electoral Vote.
5. National Poll: There are too many news sources, companies and organization with national polling data. It is unrealistic to list them all. There is no preference in one way or another. I just look at many polling data as I can and used my personal judgment as well.

Color Codes:
D = Solid Democrat State
LD = Leaning Democrat State
R = Solid GOP State
LR = Leaning GOP State
TU = Toss-Up State

A Look at the Last 5 US General Elections
State	EV(4)	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008 DEM	2008 LD	2008 GOP	2008 LR
AK	3	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	3	-
AL	9	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	9	-
AR	6	R	D	D	R	R	-	-	-	6
AZ	10	R	R	D	R	R	-	-	10	-
CA	55	R	D	D	D	D	55	-	-	-
CO	9	R	D	R	R	R	0	0	0	0
CT	7	R	D	D	D	D	7	-	-	-
DC	3	D	D	D	D	D	3	-	-	-
DE	3	R	D	D	D	D	3	-	-	-
FL	27	R	R	D	R	R	-	-	-	27
GA	15	R	D	R	R	R	-	-	-	15
HI	4	D	D	D	D	D	4	-	-	-
IA	7	D	D	D	D	R	0	0	0	0
ID	4	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	4	-
IL	21	R	D	D	D	D	21	-	-	-
IN	11	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	11	-
KS	6	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	6	-
KY	8	R	D	D	R	R	-	-	8	-
LA	9	R	D	D	R	R	-	-	-	27
MA	12	D	D	D	D	D	12	-	-	-
MD	10	R	D	D	D	D	10	-	-	-
ME	4	R	D	D	D	D	4	-	-	-
MI	17	R	D	D	D	D	0	0	0	0
MN	10	D	D	D	D	D	-	10	-	-
MO	11	R	D	D	R	R	0	0	0	0
MS	6	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	-	6
MT	3	R	D	R	R	R	-	-	-	3
NC	15	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	-	15
ND	3	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	3	-
NE	5	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	5	-
NH	4	R	D	D	R	D	0	0	0	0
NJ	15	R	D	D	D	D	-	15	-	-
NM	5	R	D	D	D	R	0	0	0	0
NV	5	R	D	D	R	R	0	0	0	0
NY	31	D	D	D	D	D	31	-	-	-
OH	20	R	D	D	R	R	0	0	0	0
OK	7	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	7	-
OR	7	D	D	D	D	D	-	7	-	-
PA	21	R	D	D	D	D	0	0	0	0
RI	4	D	D	D	D	D	4	-	-	-
SC	8	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	8	-
SD	3	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	3	-
TN	11	R	D	D	R	R	-	-	11	-
TX	34	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	34	-
UT	5	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	5	-
VA	13	R	R	R	R	R	0	0	0	0
VT	3	R	D	D	D	D	3	-	-	-
WA	11	D	D	D	D	D	11	-	-	-
WI	10	D	D	D	D	D	-	10	-	-
WV	7	D	D	D	R	R	-	-	7	-
WY	3	R	R	R	R	R	-	-	3	-
This is a divider
Empty TD				Dem. Base			168	-	-	-
Empty TD				Leaning Dem.			-	42	-	-
Empty TD				GOP Base			-	-	135	-
Empty TD				Leaning GOP			-	-	-	81
Totals (DEM and LD / GOP and LR)							210		216
Empty TD			Toss-Up States			112	-	-	-	-
Last Updated: 04/09/2008 - 10:40 PM

Solution

2008-03-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

This a hold post to test a new approach. The Democratic Party solution for selecting the party nominee for 2012 and beyond.

The democratic process to select the party nominee has become so complicated and confusing. Its design has proven over the years to stall the process and drag it for a long period of time.

Let’s see how the system is designed today:
1. Superdelegates Role: It has been a lot of discussion recently about the process itself and the role those superdelegates in deciding the party nominee. No matter what the reason for creating the superdelegates role in the past, it has no place in today’s politics, and cast a great question mark and shadow over the election process and democracy itself. In addition, discussions are now being conducted all over the internet about the wisdom of a caucus instead or a primary. Why should a small percentage of the population have to decide what the general public ought to decide? They might be more enthusiastic about their preferred nominee, but that still does not give them the right to decide for the general population.
2. Proportional Delegate allocation: Proportional Delegate allocation is another faulty design. As it has been seen so far in every election that is had dragged the process a long time that is taken to select the party nominee. It does not serve the public well. Seeing what happened in this year nomination process, as well as in previous years, a new solution is warranted and here it is. We have 50 Sates plus DC and 4 territories (PR, GU, AS, DA, and 5 if you Northern Mariana as the GOP did).

The solution for 2012 Democratic Nomination process and beyond:

1. Change all caucuses to Primaries.
2. Allow early voting in every state and the elimination of voting machines that do not produce a paper trail.
3. All citizens should be allowed to vote absentee if they so choose
4. Introduce five rotating regional super Tuesdays from Fen. Till June. See Regional schedule for more detail. Sen. Nelson (D-FL), Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan and the former secretary of state Worley advocated for a "rotating regional primary system" idea.
5. Change the numbers of delegate that each state to match the exact number of the Electoral Votes in the general election.
6. Change the allocation to “Winner Takes All” at state wide or at the State congressional district level. The first is better.
7. Get rid of all super delegates role altogether “Superdelegates -- Republicans don't have them in their nominating process”, they just will ruin the Democratic Party in 2008, and will do the same in future Elections.
8. Each state should enact a law Impose “24 Hours Election Blackout on the media and the Candidates”. The blackout out should start 24 hours before the poll closed in the first state and extended until the poll closes in the last state conducting election on that day, learn from FL 2000. It should prevent them from showing anything related to the elections including but not limited to “Campaigning, Exit Polls, Projections, Predicting, etc.” Similar to other countries such as Serbia.

The benefits of this solution are:
1. The will of the voter is the one who will determine the Democratic Party nominee, not those superdelegates that does a lot of unseen politics and backroom secret deals.
2. The nation will have 2 Tuesdays to worry about and save the public from the Media bombardments about the election every day from Feb. to June.
3. The primaries result will be known within a short period of time, while the caucuses take from 2-3 months.
4. The Nominee will be known in May and he/she and the DP has 6 months to concentrate on November General Election.
5. The states will have the same exact number of delegates as the general election, which seems more logical.

How to do it:
1. The plan should be implemented nation wide within 3 years period.
2. Make a schedule to implement this plan no later than Jan. 2009.
3. Each state and territory should pass laws to implement this plan, no later than Jun. 2010.
4. Void any Federal law that prevents the states from implementing this plan.
5. Void any state laws that contradict this plan.

Who will support this plan?
1. The US voter who will feel that the process is truly democratic and their vote will not be thrown away by superdelegates backrooms secret deals.
2. Independents candidates who will have no chance otherwise, because of the superdelegates role.

Who will oppose this plan?
1. The superdelegates that got used to privileges and benefits of influencing the nomination process, which in turns enhance their personal agenda, not to mention the tons of money they get in the process.
2. The Media that generates Millions and Millions of dollars from the DP ads stretched from Jan. to Jun. Plus it keep them filling their political programs, instead of the useless stuff that they usually have.

Mediterranean Food - Hummus or Chickpeas recipe

2008-02-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

When you think of the Middle East or Mediterranean Food, some might think of Arabic food. It is not so, don’t equate Mediterranean Food to only Arabic food. Mediterranean, in addition to Arabic countries, include East Spain, south France, south Italy, Cyprus, Malta and of course Greece.

Some people believe that the Mediterranean Food has a great health benefits. I do agree with that, and I will bring to you, now and then, great recipes of Mediterranean Food starting with a dish that has world wide recognition, The Hummus or Chickpeas.

INGREDIENTS:
1 can of chickpeas usually 12 to 16 oz can.
2 oz (4 tablespoons) lemon juice.
1 oz (2 tablespoons) of Tahini.
Pepper, garlic as desired (crushed), salt to taste
1/2 oz (1 tablespoons) olive oil
PREPARATION:
1. Mix the lemon juice and Tahini together and stir until the mix becomes creamy.
2. Add chickpeas, pepper, garlic and salt to the mix.
3. Mix all together or use blender or food processor for 3-5 minutes until thoroughly mixed.
4. When ready to serve, add the olive oil.

Bon Appetit!!!!!

Super Tuesday!!!!!!

2008-02-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Today is Super Tuesday, where voters will decide in 20+ states to elect their nominee for the Democratic and Republican parties for the President of the United States.
I be following the vote very closely, since I was keeping track of the delegate counts.
So Far we have on the Democratic party:

Clinton 439 Delegates (with FL & MI Counted)
Obama 242 Delegates (with FL & MI counted)

Clinton 249 Delegates (Without FL & MI)
Obama 172 Delegates (without FL & MI)

On the Republican side:
McCain 97
Romney 92

Will today be the decisive day for some of them, who knows.

We will know that mostly after 11:00 PM EST.

Cheers!!