William “Bill” Clinton
Democrat - Arkansas
George H. W. Bush
Republican - Texas
H. Ross Perot
Independent - Texas

It seemed like Bill Clinton had everything going for him. He defeated an incumbent President and became the first
Democrat to win the White House since
Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford. He had a Democratic House and a
Democratic Senate to work with him.

One of the first major initiatives he began was health care reform. Many Americans were concerned about spiraling medical costs.
Medicare did not cover prescription drugs and only paid a portion of health care costs. Over 20 million Americans had no health insurance whatsoever. Clinton assembled a task force to study the problem and assigned his wife
Hillary to head the committee. She became the most politically active first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eventually Clinton presented a plan to limit costs and insure each American citizen to the
Congress. Powerful interest groups representing doctors and insurance companies opposed Clinton. Many in the
Congress thought the program too costly.
Conservatives compared the plan to socialized medicine. Despite a "friendly"
Democratic Congress, the Clintons' proposal was defeated.

In January 1998, a scandal that nearly ended
Clinton's Presidency unfolded in the press. It was reported that Clinton engaged in a sexual relationship with a White House intern named
Monica Lewinsky during his first term.
Although Clinton originally denied the charges, overwhelming evidence was presented that Clinton and Lewinsky engaged in repeated sexual contact, even in the Oval Office.

Republicans were outraged. An independent counsel named Kenneth Starr was appointed to gather evidence against Clinton. As the summer ended,
Clinton admitted that many of the reports were true and that he was ashamed of his behavior. The
House Judiciary Committee drew up articles of impeachment on four counts including abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Across the nation, Americans debated whether or not
Clinton's misbehavior constituted an impeachable offense.

The House decided that two articles of impeachment were in order, and in December
1998, Clinton joined Andrew Johnson as the only Presidents to be impeached. In such proceedings, the Senate has the final word and acts as a judge and jury. Two-thirds of the
Senators must vote guilty to remove a
President from office. Clinton survived this final vote to impeach which unfolded along party lines.

Some have begun to call it the
Information Revolution. Technological changes brought dramatic new options to
Americans living in the 1990s. From the beginning of the decade until the end, new forms of entertainment, commerce, research, work, and communication became commonplace in the United
States. The driving force behind much of this change was an innovation popularly known as the Internet .

Personal computers had become widespread by the end of the 1980s. Also available was the ability to connect these computers over local or even national networks. Through a device called a modem, individual users could link their computer to a wealth of information using conventional phone lines. What lay beyond the individual computer was a vast domain of information known as cyberspace.

One early problem faced by Internet users was speed. Phone lines could only transmit information at a limited rate.
The development of fiber-optic cables allowed for billions of bits of information to be received every minute. Companies like Intel developed faster microprocessors, so personal computers could process the incoming signals at a more rapid rate.


In the early 1990s, the World Wide Web was developed, in large part, for commercial purposes.
Corporations created home pages where they could place text and graphics to sell products. Soon airline tickets, hotel reservations, books, and even cars and homes could be purchased online. Colleges and universities posted research data on the Internet, so students could find valuable information without leaving their dormitories. Companies soon discovered that work could be done at home and submitted online, so a whole new class of telecommuters began to earn a living from home offices unshaven and wearing pajamas.


New forms of communication were introduced.
Electronic mail, or email, was a convenient way to send a message to associates or friends. Messages could be sent and received at the convenience of the individual. A letter that took several days to arrive could be read in minutes. Internet service providers like America Online and CompuServe set up electronic chat rooms. These were open areas of cyberspace where interested parties could join in a conversation with perfect strangers.


Advocates of the Internet cited its many advantages. The commercial possibilities were limitless. Convenience was greatly improved.
Chat rooms and email allowed individuals to converse who may never have had the opportunity in the past. Educational opportunities were greatly enhanced because of the wealth of knowledge now placed at the fingertips of any wired individual. "Surfing the
'net" became a pastime in and of itself.


Critics charged that the Internet created a technological divide that increased the gap between the haves and have-nots. Those who could not afford a computer or a monthly access fee were denied these possibilities. Many decried the impersonal nature of electronic communication compared to a telephone call or a handwritten letter. Hate groups were using the Internet to expand their bases and recruit new members. The unregulated nature of the Internet allowed pornography to be broadcast to millions of homes. Protecting children from these influences, or even from meeting violent predators would prove to be difficult. Regardless of its drawbacks, by the end of the 1990s, the world was fast becoming wired.


The "dot-com bubble" (or sometimes "IT bubble" or "TMT bubble") was a speculative bubble covering roughly
1995–2000 (with a climax on March 10,
2000 with the NASDAQ peaking at
5132.52) during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more recent Internet sector and related fields.


While the latter part was a boom and bust cycle, the Internet boom sometimes is meant to refer to the steady commercial growth of the Internet with the advent of the world wide web as exemplified by the first release of the
Mosaic web browser in 1993 and continuing through the 1990s.


The period was marked by the founding
(and, in many cases, spectacular failure) of a group of new Internet-based companies commonly referred to as dotcoms. Companies were seeing their stock prices shoot up if they simply added an
"e-" prefix to their name and/or a ".com" to the end, which one author called
"prefix investing"


A combination of rapidly increasing stock prices, market confidence that the companies would turn future profits, individual speculation in stocks, and widely available venture capital created an environment in which many investors were willing to overlook traditional metrics such as P/E ratio in favor of confidence in technological advancements.


According to dot-com theory, an Internet company's survival depended on expanding its customer base as rapidly as possible, even if it produced large annual losses. For instance, Google and Amazon did not see any profit in their first years. Amazon was spending on expanding customer base and letting people know that it existed and Google was busy spending on creating more powerful machine capacity to serve its expanding search engine.


The phrase "Get large or get lost" was the wisdom of the day. At the height of the boom, it was possible for a promising dot-com to make an initial public offering (IPO) of its stock and raise a substantial amount of money even though it had never made a profit — or, in some cases, earned any revenue what so ever. In such a situation, a company's lifespan was measured by its burn rate: that is, the rate at which a non-profitable company lacking a viable business model ran through its capital served as the metric.


Over 1999 and early 2000, the U.S. Federal
Reserve increased interest rates six times, and the economy began to lose speed. The dot-com bubble burst, numerically, on March 10, 2000, when the technology heavy NASDAQ
Composite index, peaked at 5,048.62 (intraday peak 5,132.52), more than double its value just a year before.


The NASDAQ fell slightly after that, but this was attributed to correction by most market analysts; the actual reversal and subsequent bear market may have been triggered by the adverse findings of fact in the United States v.
Microsoft case which was being heard in federal court. The findings, which declared
Microsoft a monopoly, were widely expected in the weeks before their release on April 3.

When two students entered Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colorado in April 1999 with weapons, they murdered thirteen people before taking their own lives. Critics pointed to a media that glorified and promoted violence, permissive gun laws, failing schools, and neglectful parenting.


The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High
School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and one teacher. They also injured 21 other students directly, and three people were injured while attempting to escape. The pair then committed suicide. It is the fourthdeadliest school massacre in United States history.

Eric Harris and Dylan
Klebold caught on the high school's security cameras in the cafeteria shortly before committing suicide.


The Oklahoma City bombing was a bomb attack on the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in downtown
Oklahoma City on April 19,
1995 by Timothy McVeigh, an
American militia movement sympathizer who detonated an explosive-filled truck parked in front of the building.
McVeigh's co-conspirator,
Terry Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation.


It was the most destructive act of terrorism on
American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6, and injured more than 680 people. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage.


Motivated by his hatred of the federal government and angered by what he perceived as its mishandling of the Waco Siege (1993) and the Ruby Ridge incident (1992), McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the deaths at Waco.
Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon.


Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and
Nichols to the attack; Nichols was arrested, and within days both were charged. Michael and Lori
Fortier were later identified as accomplices.
Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations.




As a result of the bombing, the U.S. government passed legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. From 1995 to 2005, over 60 domestic terrorism plots were foiled due to preventive measures taken in response to the bombing. On April
19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Annual remembrance services are held at the same time of day as the original explosion occurred.


The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince
William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the
Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach,
California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels (41,000 to
119,000 m3) of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur in history. As significant as the Valdez spill was — the largest ever in U.S. waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill — it ranks well down on the list of the world's largest oil spills in terms of volume released.


However, Prince William Sound's remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane and boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil, originally extracted at the Prudhoe
Bay oil field, eventually covered 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of coastline, and 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2) of ocean. Then Exxon CEO, Lawrence G. Rawl, shaped the company's response.


The Oil Pollution Act (101 H.R.1465, P.L. 101-380 ) was passed by the 101st United States Congress to mitigate and prevent civil liability for future oil spills off the coast of the United States.

The law stated that companies must have a "plan to prevent spills that may occur" and have a "detailed containment and cleanup plan" for oil spills. The law also includes a clause that prohibits any vessel that, after March 22, 1989, has caused an oil spill of more than one million U.S. gallons (3,800 m³) in any marine area, from operating in Prince William Sound


The North American Free Trade Agreement or
NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the
United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in
North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada-
United States Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Canada. In terms of combined purchasing power parity GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) of its members, as of 2007 the trade bloc is the largest in the world and second largest by nominal GDP comparison.


The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers of trade and investment between the USA, Canada and
Mexico. The implementation of NAFTA on January
1, 1994, brought the immediate elimination of tariffs on more than one half of U.S. imports from Mexico and more than one third of U.S. exports to Mexico.
Within 10 years of the implementation of the agreement, all US-Mexico tariffs would be eliminated except for some U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico that were to be phased out in 15 years. Most US-
Canada trade was already duty free. NAFTA also seeks to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers.

George W. Bush
Republican - Texas
Al Gore
Democrat - Tennessee
Ralph Nader
Green Party - Connecticut

Presidential election results map . Red denotes states won by Bush/Cheney,
Blue denotes those won by Gore/Lieberman.


As the night wore on, the returns in a handful of small-to-medium sized states, including
Wisconsin and Iowa, were extremely close; however it was the state of Florida that would make clear the winner of the election. As the final national results were tallied the following morning, Bush had clearly won a total of 246 electoral votes, while Gore had won 255 votes.
270 votes were needed to win.


Two smaller states - New Mexico (5 electoral votes) and Oregon (7 electoral votes) - were still too close to call. It was Florida (25 electoral votes), however, that the news media focused their attention on.
Mathematically, Florida's 25 electoral votes became the key to an election win for either candidate. Although both New Mexico and Oregon were declared in favor of Gore over the next few days, Florida's statewide vote took center stage because that state's winner would ultimately win the election. The outcome of the election was not known for more than a month after the balloting ended because of the extended process of counting and then recounting Florida's presidential ballots.


At approximately 7:50 p.m. EST on election day, 10 minutes before the polls closed in the largely Republican
Florida panhandle, which is in the Central time zone, some television news networks declared that Gore had carried Florida's 25 electoral votes. They based this prediction substantially on exit polls. However, in the actual vote tally Bush began to take a wide lead early in
Florida, and by 10 p.m. EST those networks had retracted that prediction and placed Florida back into the
"undecided" column. At approximately 2:30 a.m., with some 85% of the votes counted in Florida and Bush leading Gore by more than 100,000 votes, the networks declared that Bush had carried Florida and therefore had been elected President.


However, most of the remaining votes to be counted in
Florida were located in three heavily Democratic counties - Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach - and as their votes were reported Gore began to gain on Bush.
By 4:30 a.m., after all votes were counted, Gore had narrowed Bush's margin to just over 2,000 votes, and the networks retracted their predictions that Bush had won
Florida and the presidency. Gore, who had privately conceded the election to Bush, withdrew his concession.
The final result in Florida was slim enough to require a mandatory recount (by machine) under state law; Bush's lead had dwindled to about 300 votes by the time it was completed later that week. A count of overseas military ballots later boosted his margin to about 900 votes.


Most of the post-electoral controversy revolved around Gore's request for hand recounts in four counties (Broward, Miami Dade, Palm Beach, and
Volusia), as provided under Florida state law.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced she would reject any revised totals from those counties if they were not turned in by
November 14, the statutory deadline for amended returns. The Florida Supreme Court extended the deadline to November 26, a decision later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court.


Miami-Dade eventually halted its recount and resubmitted its original total to the state canvassing board, while Palm Beach County failed to meet the extended deadline. On November 26, the state canvassing board certified Bush the winner of
Florida's electors by 537 votes. Gore formally contested the certified results, but a state court decision overruling Gore was reversed by the Florida
Supreme Court, which ordered a recount of over
70,000 ballots previously rejected by machine counters. The U.S. Supreme Court quickly halted the order.


On December 12, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7–2 vote that the Florida Supreme Court's ruling requiring a statewide recount of ballots was unconstitutional, and in a 5–4 vote that the Florida recounts could not be completed before a December
12 "safe harbor" deadline, and should therefore cease and the previously certified total should hold. The
Supreme Court's decision was an unsigned or "Per
Curiam" ruling; the ruling was “limited to the present circumstances” and could not be cited as precedent. The Governor of Florida at this time was
Jeb Bush, brother to the Republican candidate
George W. Bush.


Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote, he received 543,895 more popular votes than Bush. Gore failed to win the popular vote in his home state,
Tennessee, which both he and his father had represented in the Senate. Gore was the first majorparty presidential candidate to have lost his home state since George McGovern lost South Dakota in
1972. Bush lost in Connecticut, the state of his birth.
Bush is also the first Republican in American history to win the presidency without winning Vermont or
Illinois and the second Republican to win the presidency without winning California. (James A.
Garfield in 1880 was the first.)


In the 2006 documentary An Unreasonable Man,
Nader describes how he was unable to get the views of his public interest groups heard in Washington, even by the Clinton Administration. Nader cites this as one of the primary reasons that he decided to actively run in the 2000 election as candidate of the
Green Party, which had been formed in the wake of his 1996 campaign.


In October 2000, at the largest Super Rally of his campaign, held in New York City's Madison Square
Garden, 15,000 people paid $20 each to hear Mr. Nader speak. Nader's campaign rejected both parties as institutions dominated by corporate interests, stating that
Al Gore and George W. Bush were "Tweedledee and
Tweedledum". A long list of notable celebs spoke and performed at the event including Susan Sarandon, Ani
DiFranco, Ben Harper, Tim Robbins, Michael Moore,
Eddie Vedder and Patti Smith. The campaign also had some prominent union help: The California Nurses
Association and the United Electrical Workers endorsed his candidacy and campaigned for him


In 2000, Nader and his running mate Winona
LaDuke received 2,883,105 votes, for 2.74 percent of the popular vote (third place overall), missing the 5 percent needed to qualify the Green Party for federally distributed public funding in the next election, yet qualifying the Greens for ballot status in many states.


Nader's votes in New Hampshire and Florida vastly exceeded the difference in votes between Gore and
Bush, as did the votes of all alternative candidates.
Exit polls showed New Hampshire staying close, and within the margin of error without Nader as national exit polls showed Nader's supporters choosing Gore over Bush by a large margin, well outside the margin of error. Winning either state would have given Gore the presidency, and while critics claim this shows
Nader tipped the election to Bush, Nader has called that claim "a mantra — an assumption without data."


Michael Moore at first argued that Florida was so close that votes for any of seven other candidates could also have switched the results, but in 2004 joined the view that Nader had helped make Bush president. Other Nader supporters argued that Gore was primarily responsible for his own loss.


But Eric Alterman, perhaps Nader's most persistent critic, has regarded such arguments as beside the point: "One person in the world could have prevented Bush's election with his own words on the
Election Day 2000." Nation columnist Alexander
Cockburn cited Gore's failure to win over progressive voters in Florida who chose Nader, and congratulated those voters: "Who would have thought the Sunshine State had that many progressives in it, with steel in their spine and the spunk to throw Eric Alterman's columns into the trash can?"


Nader's actual influence on the 2000 election is the subject of considerable discussion, and there is no consensus on Nader's impact on the outcome. Still others argued that even if Nader's constituents could have made the swing difference between Gore and
Bush, the votes Nader garnered were not from the
Democrats, but from Democrats, Republicans, and discouraged voters who would not have voted otherwise.


Bush was sworn in as president on January 20, 2001.
Though he originally outlined an ambitious domestic agenda, his priorities were significantly altered following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Wars were waged in Afghanistan and later Iraq while significant debates regarding immigration, healthcare, Social Security, economic policy, and treatment of terrorist detainees took place within the
United States.


Over an eight year period, Bush's once-high approval ratings steadily declined throughout his Presidency while his disapproval numbers increased significantly over the same time frame. During 2007, the United States entered into the longest post World War II recession and the administration responded by enacting multiple economic programs.

The September 11 attacks (often referred to as
September 11th or 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World
Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings.

Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural
Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

The death toll of the attacks was 2,996, including the 19 hijackers. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries. In addition, there is at least one secondary death – one person was ruled by a medical examiner to have died from lung disease due to exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse


The damage to the Pentagon was cleared and repaired within a year, and the Pentagon Memorial was built adjacent to the building. The rebuilding process has started on the World Trade Center site. In 2006 a new office tower was completed on the site of 7 World Trade
Center. 1 World Trade Center is currently under construction at the site and, at 1,776 ft (541 m) upon completion in 2013, it will become one of the tallest buildings in North America. Three more towers were originally expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site. Ground was broken for the Flight 93 National
Memorial on November 8, 2009, and the first phase of construction is expected to be ready for the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2011

A jet airliner approaches the second World
Trade Center tower in New
York after another plane hit the first tower.

(AP photo by Carmen
Taylor / September 11,
2001) A fireball explodes from one of the World
Trade Center towers in
New York after a jet airliner crashed into the building.

(AP photo by Amy
Sancetta / September
11, 2001) The south tower of the World
Trade Center begins to collapse after a terrorist attack on the New York landmark.

(AP photo by Richard
Drew / September 11,
2001) A person jumps from the north tower of the World Trade Center as another clings to the outside (left) while smoke and fire billow from the building.
Terrorists crashed two hijacked airliners into the New York landmark and brought down its twin towers.

(AP photo by
Suzanne
Plunkett /
September 11,
2001) People run from the collapse of the
World Trade
Center in lower
Manhattan after terrorists crashed two jet airliners into the twin towers.

(New York Times photo by Steffen
Kaplan /
September 11,
2001) Smoke billows over downtown
Manhattan after the second tower of the World Trade
Center collapsed in a terrorist attack with hijacked airplanes.

(AP photo by
Graham
Morrison /
September 11,
2001) A firefighter moves through piles of debris at the site of the World
Trade Center.
About 300 New
York firefighters exposed to smoke and dust from the disaster are now on medical leave for respiratory problems.

(AP photo by
Alex Fuchs /
September 11,
2001) The remains of the
World Trade
Center stand amid smoke and debris after the terrorist attack on the New York buildings.

(AP photo by
Diane Bondareff
/ September 11,
2001) People flee the scene near
New York's World
Trade Center after terrorists crashed two planes into the towers in a coordinated series of attacks that brought down the twin
110-story towers.

(AP photo by
Amy Sancetta /
September 11,
2001)
Pedestrians flee the area of the
World Trade
Center in lower
Manhattan following a terrorist attack on the New York landmark.

(AP photo by
Ernesto Mora /
September 11,
2001) Two women hold each other as they watch the
World Trade
Center burn following a terrorist attack on the twin skyscrapers in
New York.

(AP photo by Doug Mills
/ September 11, 2001)
President Bush's Chief of
Staff Andy Card whispers into the ear of the
President, telling him about the planes crashing into the World
Trade Center. Bush was visiting the Emma E.
Booker Elementary
School in Sarasota, Fla.

(Reuters photo by Larry Downing
/ September 11,
2001) A rescue helicopter flies over the damage to the Pentagon
Building as fire fighters battle flames after
American Airlines
Flight 77 crashed into the U.S. military
Headquarters outside of
Washington.

Firefighters hose down the twisted and smoldering remnants of one side of the
Pentagon after
American Airlines Flight
77 crashed into the
Pentagon's west wall on the morning of Sept.
11, 2001.

(AFP/Getty photo by David
Maxwell / September 11,
2001) Firefighters and emergency personnel look through the debris of
United Airlines Flight 93 after it crashed on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 near Shanksville,
Pennsylvania. 40 victims were killed in the crash after passengers reportedly stormed the cockpit to thwart terrorists' plans to use that plane as a weapon like the others.

(Tribune-Democrat photo by David Lloyd /
September 11, 2001)
Firefighters and emergency personnel investigate the scene of the fatal crash of
United Airlines Flight
93 on the morning of
Sept. 11, 2001 near
Shanksville,
Pennsylvania. 40 victims were killed in the crash after passengers reportedly stormed the cockpit to thwart terrorists' plans to use that plane as a weapon like the others.

The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terrorism: it invaded
Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists. The United States also enacted the USA PATRIOT Act . Many other countries also strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers.
Some American stock exchanges stayed closed for the rest of the week following the attack and posted enormous losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries. The destruction of billions of dollars worth of office space caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan.

Operation Active Endeavour is a naval operation of
NATO started in October 2001 in response to the
September 11 attacks. It operates in the
Mediterranean Sea and is designed to prevent the movement of militants or weapons of mass destruction and to enhance the security of shipping in general. The operation has also assisted Greece with its prevention of illegal immigration.


Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name used by the Bush administration for the War in Afghanistan, together with three smaller military actions, under the umbrella of the Global War on Terror. On September 20,
2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, George W.
Bush delivered an ultimatum to the Taliban government of Afghanistan to turn over Osama bin Laden and al-
Qaeda leaders operating in the country or face attack.The
Taliban demanded evidence of bin Laden's link to the
September 11 attacks and, if such evidence warranted a trial, they offered to handle such a trial in an Islamic
Court.The US refused to provide any evidence.


Subsequently, in October 2001, US forces (with UK and coalition allies) invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime. On October 7, 2001 the official invasion began with British and US forces conducting airstrike campaigns.

Waging war in Afghanistan had been of a lower priority for the US government than the war in Iraq. Admiral
Mike Mullen, Staff Chairman the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that while the situation in Afghanistan is "precarious and urgent," the 10,000 additional troops needed there would be unavailable "in any significant manner" unless withdrawals from Iraq were made. Mullen stated that
"my priorities . . . given to me by the commander in chief are: Focus on Iraq first. It's been that way for some time.
Focus on Afghanistan second."


Iraq had been listed as a State sponsor of international terrorism by the United States since 1990, when Saddam
Hussein fell out of US favor. The regime of Saddam Hussein proved a continuing problem for the UN and Iraq’s neighbors in its use of chemical weapons against Iranians and Kurds.

After the Gulf War, the US, French and British militaries instituted and began patrolling Iraqi no-fly zones, to protect
Iraq's Kurdish minority and Shi'a Arab population—both of which suffered attacks from the Hussein regime before and after the Gulf War—in Iraq's northern and southern regions, respectively. US forces continued in combat zone deployments through November 1995 and launched
Operation Desert Fox against Iraq in 1998 after it failed to meet US demands of "unconditional cooperation" in weapons inspections.


The George W. Bush administration called for the
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to again send weapons inspectors to Iraq (previous inspectors had been expelled after being caught spying for the
US) to find and destroy the alleged weapons of mass destruction and called for a UNSC resolution.[40]
UNSC Resolution 1441 was passed unanimously, which offered Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" or face "serious consequences."






One Senator stood up to oppose this – Senator Paul
Wellstone (D – MN). Wellstone voted against the use of force before the Iraq War on October 11, 2002 (the vote was 77–23 in favor). Wellstone was one of 11 senators to vote against both the 1991 and 2002 resolutions. On October 25, 2002 Wellstone, along with seven others, died in a plane crash in northern
Minnesota, at approximately 10:22 a.m. This led to the election of Bush’s hand picked candidate for this
Senate seat – Norm Coleman.


After failing to overcome opposition from
France, Russia, and China against a UNSC resolution that would sanction the use of force against Iraq, and before the UN weapons inspectors had completed their inspections
(which were claimed to be fruitless by the US because of Iraq's alleged deception), the
United States assembled a "Coalition of the
Willing" composed of nations who pledged support for its policy of regime change in Iraq.


On March 19, 2003, the Iraq War began and the invasion of Iraq was launched the next day. The Bush administration stated the invasion was the "serious consequences" spoken of in UNSC Resolution 1441.

Iraq's government was quickly toppled and on May
1, 2003, Bush announced that major combat operations in Iraq had ended. However, an insurgency arose against the US-led coalition and the newly developing Iraqi military and post-Saddam government. This insurgency led to far more coalition casualties than the invasion.




In January 2007 President Bush presented a new strategy for Operation Iraqi Freedom based upon counter-insurgency theories and tactics developed by
General David Petraeus. The Iraq War troop surge of
2007 was part of this "new way forward" and, along with US backing of Sunni groups it had previously sought to defeat, has been credited with a widely recognized dramatic decrease in violence by up to
80%, and a more controversial possible increase in political and communal reconciliation in Iraq.



George W. Bush
Republican - Texas
John Kerry
Democrat –
Massachusetts
Ralph Nader
Independent - Conneticut


Nader's 2004 campaign ran on a platform consistent with the
Green Party's positions on major issues, such as opposition to the war in Iraq. Due to concerns about a possible spoiler effect as in 2000, many Democrats urged Nader to abandon his 2004 candidacy. The Chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, Terry McAuliffe, stated that Nader had a
"distinguished career, fighting for working families," and that
McAuliffe "would hate to see part of his legacy being that he got us eight years of George Bush." Nader replied to this, in filmed interviews for An Unreasonable Man, by arguing that,
"Voting for a candidate of one's choice is a Constitutional right, and the Democrats who are asking me not to run are, without question, seeking to deny the Constitutional rights of voters who are, by law, otherwise free to choose to vote for me." Nader's 2004 campaign theme song was "If You Gotta
Ask" by Liquid Blue.


In May 2009, in a new book, Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a
Two-Party Tyranny, Theresa Amato, who was Nader's national campaign manager in 2000 and 2004, alleged that McAuliffe offered to pay off Nader to stop campaigning in certain states in 2004. This was confirmed by
Nader, and neither McAuliffe nor his spokeswoman disputed the claim.

In the 2004 campaign, Democrats such as Howard Dean and Terry
McAuliffe asked that Nader return money donated to his campaign by
Republicans who were well-known Bush supporters, such as billionaire
Richard Egan.[65][66] Nader's reaction to the request was to refuse to return any donations and he charged that the Democrats were attempting to smear him.[65] Nader's vice-presidential running mate, Peter Camejo, supported the return of the money if it could be proved that "the aim of the wealthy GOP donors was to peel votes from Kerry." According to the
San Francisco Chronicle, Nader defended his keeping of the donations by saying that wealthy contributors "are human beings too."

Nader received 463,655 votes, for 0.38 percent of the popular vote, placing him in third place overall


The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the "Patriot Act") is an Act of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W.
Bush on October 26, 2001. The title of the Act is a contrived acronym, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.


The Act dramatically reduced restrictions on law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records; eased restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expanded the Secretary of the
Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and broadened the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA PATRIOT Act’s expanded law enforcement powers could be applied.

The Act was passed by wide margins in both houses of
Congress and was supported by members of both the
Republican and Democratic parties. Many of the act's provisions were to sunset beginning December 31,
2005, approximately 4 years after its passage. In the months preceding the sunset date, supporters of the act pushed to make its sunsetting provisions permanent, while critics sought to revise various sections to enhance civil liberty protections.

In July 2005, the U.S. Senate passed a reauthorization bill with substantial changes to several sections of the act, while the House reauthorization bill kept most of the act's original language. The two bills were then reconciled in a conference committee that was criticized by Senators from both the Republican and
Democratic parties for ignoring civil liberty concerns.
The bill, which removed most of the changes from the Senate version, passed Congress on March 2,
2006, and was signed into law by President George
W. Bush on March 9 and 10, 2006.

Barack Obama
Democrat - Illinois
John McCain
Republican - Arizona
Ralph Nader
Independent - Conneticut

Barack Obama
Democrat - Illinois
John McCain
Republican - Arizona


In February 2007, Nader criticized Democratic front-runner
Hillary Clinton as "a panderer and a flatterer." Asked on CNN
Late Edition news program if he would run in 2008, Nader replied, "It's really too early to say...."Asked during a radio appearance to describe the former First Lady, Nader said,
"Flatters, panders, coasting, front-runner, looking for a coronation ... She has no political fortitude." Some Greens started a campaign to draft Nader as their party's 2008 presidential candidate.

After some consideration, Nader announced on February 24,
2008, that he would run for President as an independent. His vice-presidential candidate was Matt Gonzalez.

Nader received 738,475 votes, for 0.56 percent of the popular vote, placing him in third place overall.


The first bill signed into law by Obama was the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits. Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million children currently uninsured.


In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research. Obama stated that he believed "sound science and moral values...are not inconsistent" and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.


On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.

Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James
Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, on October 8, 2009.

 the deepening worldwide recession.[130] The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals, which is being distributed over the course of several years.


President Barack Obama signs the ARRA into law on
February 17, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. Vice President Joe
Biden stands behind him.

In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for
Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets


Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[133] in March 2009, renewing loans for General
Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White
House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60% equity stake in the company, with the
Canadian government shouldering a 12% stake. In June
2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus,
Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.
He signed into law the successful Car Allowance Rebate
System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", running from July to August 2009, which not only reduced inventories but set off increased production runs at GM, Ford and Toyota, resulting in the rehiring of laidoff workers.


Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal. He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.

1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
Year
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
2004
2005
2006
Title
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
GLADIATOR
A BEAUTIFUL MIND
CHICAGO
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE
RETURN OF THE KING
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
CRASH
THE DEPARTED
Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
Title
NO COUNTRY FOR
OLD MEN
SLUMDOG
MILLIONAIRE
THE HURT LOCKER
?

1999
1999
2000
2000
2001
1996
1996
1997
1998
1998
Year
1993
1994
1994
1995
2001
2002
2002
Title
The Piano
Pulp Fiction
The Shawshank Redemption
Apollo 13
Fargo
Jerry Maguire
Good Will Hunting
Elizabeth
Saving Private Ryan
The Sixth Sense
The Green Mile
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge
Gangs of New York
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

2006
2006
2007
2008
2008
2004
2004
2005
2005
2005
Year
2003
2003
2003
2004
2009
2009
2009
Title
Lost In Translation
Mystic River
Seabiscuit
The Aviator
Ray
Sideways
Brokeback Mountain
Good Night, and Good Luck
Capote
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Juno
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Avatar
Precious
The Blind Side

#1 Shows since 1993
Season
1993 - 94
1994 – 95,
1997 - 98
1995 – 96,
1998 - 99
Show
Home Improvement
Seinfeld
E.R.
1999 - 2000 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
Network
ABC
NBC
NBC
ABC

Top 12 Shows 2000 - 2009
Show
Network
Friday Night Lights
NBC
Battlestar Galactica
The Wire
Lost
Veronica Mars
The Office
Firefly
Arrested Development
Big Love
24
Family Guy
Doctor Who
Sci-Fi
HBO
ABC
UPN/The CW
NBC
FOX
FOX
HBO
FOX
FOX
BBC

Show
Married …with Children
The Simpsons
Stargate SG-1
The Sopranos
Deadwood
Mad Men
30 Rock
Sex and the City
CSI : Crime Scene Investigation
House, M.D.
The West Wing
Babylon 5
7th Heaven
That ‘70’s Show
Ally Mc Beal
Friends
Network
FOX
FOX
Sci-Fi
HBO
HBO
AMC
NBC
HBO
CBS
FOX
NBC
PTEN/TNT
The WB
FOX
FOX
NBC
Other
Popular
TV
Shows of the
1990’s and
2000’s

.
Year
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
Song
What Is Love
All I Wanna Do
Cotton Eye Joe
Macarena
Barbie Girl
I Don't Want To Miss a Thing
All Star
Who Let The Dogs Out
Cha Cha Slide
Artist
Haddaway
Sheryl Crow
Rednex
Los Del Rio
Aqua
Aerosmith
Smash Mouth
Baha Men
Mr C The Slide Man

.
Year
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2007
2008
2009
2009
Song
A Moment Like This
Crazy In Love
Yeah!
Hollaback Girl
Sexyback
The Sweet Escape
Girlfriend
Single Ladies (Put A Ring On it)
I Gotta Feeling
You Belong With Me
Artist
Kelly Clarkson
Beyonce Featuring Jay-Z
Usher Featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
Gwen Stefani
Justin Timberlake
Gwen Stefani and Akon
Avril Lavigne
Beyonce
Black Eyed Peas
Taylor Swift

1997
1997
1997
1998
1998
1999
1999
2000
2000
2000
Year
1994
1995
1995
1995
1996
Song
Crazy
I'll Be There For You
Run-Around
Waterfalls
Breakfast At Tiffany's
Wannabe
Tubthumping
Missing You
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
My Heart Will Go On
Man! I Feel Like A Woman
Mambo No. 5
It's My Life
Breathe
Oops! I Did It Again
Artist
Aerosmith
Rembrandts
Blues Traveler
TLC
Deep Blue Something
Spice Girls
Chumbawamba
Puff Daddy & Faith Evans
Green Day
Celine Dion
Shania Twain
Lou Bega
Bon Jovi
Faith Hill
Britney Spears

2002
2002
2003
2004
2004
2004
2005
2005
2005
Year
2001
2001
2001
2001
2002
Song
God Bless The USA
I Hope You Dance
Bad Day
Thank You
Complicated
The Middle
Hey Baby
Stacy's Mom
American Idiot
1985
Redneck Woman
Pon De Replay
Collide
Don't Cha
Artist
Lee Greenwood
LeeAnn Womack
Danial Powter
Dido
Avril Lavigne
Jimmy Eat World
No Doubt and Bounty Killer
Fountains Of Wayne
Green Day
Bowling for Soup
Gretchen Wilson
Rihanna
Howie Day
The Pussycat Dolls Featuring Busta Rhymes

Year
2006
2006
2006
2006
2007
2007
2007
2007
2007
2008
Song
Hips Don't Lie
Unfaithful
Lips of An Angel
Photograph
Before He Cheats
Rehab
Bubbly
Candyman
Rockstar
All Summer Long
Artist
Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean
Rihanna
Hinder
Nickelback
Carrie Underwood
Amy Winehouse
Colbie Caillat
Christina Aguilera
Nickelback
Kid Rock