Blog Five: The 1970s-2000s

Textbook Readings:
               Chapter 29 of our textbook, American Horizons, discuses the 1970s. Although Nixon's resignation in August 1974 relieved the pain of Watergate, his exit left many unresolved problems, and his successors did little to restore faith in the national leadership. Gerald Ford came into office after Nixon. When Ford came into office, he pardoned Nixon, which caused many Americans to lose confidence in his judgment, and he also appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President, which angered conservatives. His approval ratings were very low, and Ronald Reagan criticized Ford, saying he was too cozy with the Democrats, and too weak on defense. Reagan said that in order to improve the economy, he would create sharp tax cuts and aggressive business deregulation. He also said there would be strict limits on abortion, restoration of school prayer, and a more militant foreign policy. In the primary election, Reagan won nearly as many votes as Ford. Ford barely edged out Reagan to go against the Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter. In the election, half of the eligible voters voted, which was the lowest number in a presidential election since World War Two. Carter won the election by a narrow margin. He had little experience in Washington, and had disdain for many politicians. While Carter was in office, the price of oil raised from $3 a barrel to $18 a barrel. He created the Department of Energy to boost energy conservation, expand domestic drilling, and promote new energy sources, such as synthetic fuels from coal and shale, wind, solar and nuclear. The U.S. economy was not in good shape. Energy prices were rising, there was a growing foreign trade deficit, and the dollar was falling in value. All of this further weakened the economy and caused inflation to rise to crisis levels. Unemployment was also very high, between 6% and 7.5%.
               President Carter's respect for human rights would be the foundation for his foreign policy. He was the first president to visit Sub-Saharan Africa and voice his support for peaceful efforts to replace white-ruled regimes in Rhodesia and South Africa. Then the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in an attempt to start up a pro-communist government. Carter responded by suspending all SALT-11 arms control treaty with the Soviets, pulled U.S. athletes out of the Moscow Olympics, suspended grain sales to the USSR, resumed the draft registration, and sharply increased military spending. After the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran was seized on November 4, 1979 by radical students. 54 diplomats and marine guards were held hostage. The pro-American Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi fled Iran after months of street protests, and then the elderly ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini was able to become the leader of Iran. The seizure occurred because Carter allowed the pro-American Shah  to come to the U.S. for medical treatment in October 1979. The Iranian government demanded the Shah and the "stolen wealth" be sent home, but Carter refused and the radical students took over the embassy and held hostages. The hostages were held for the rest of Carter's presidency, and that made him seem weak. The Hostages were freed on January 20, 1981, just as Ronald Reagan took the presidential oath.
               By 1980, Americans said they were economically "worse off" than they had been before 1973, and they blamed "big government" liberalism for their problems. By 1988, 80% of Evangelicals voted Republican when they used to vote Democrat, and the south had been transformed form Democratic to a Republican stronghold. By this time, many people were blaming the Democrats for social and economic policies for urban decay, rising rates of crime and welfare, and availability of abortions. However, Reagan helped restore an era of small government, traditional cultural values and an economy controlled by market forces. Reagan wanted Congress to lower taxes and boost defense spending. After an assassination attempt was made on Reagan, Congress approved his call. As the economy started improving, so did Reagan's popularity. "Reaganomics" was the president's economic policy, which is often credited with restoring economic growth and expanding prosperity in the U.S. However, it wasn't as responsible as people thought. After peaking in 1981, oil prices dropped and further spurred economic recovery. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker imposed high interest rates that gradually reduced inflation to just over 4%. As the country's economy was recovering, the national debt tripled to nearly $3 trillion by 1989. The U.S. went from being the world's biggest lender to the world's biggest spender. The Justice Department became lax with monopolies, allowing more mergers and dropping many anti-trust cases. During the 1980s, Reagan promoted conservative sexual orientation, and AIDs and HIV appeared in the U.S. in the 1980s. AIDs and HIV were typically seen in gay men and drug users, and they originated in Africa decades earlier and broke out as a by-product of economic development. The disease is contracted through bodily fluids, such as semen or blood.
               Reagan is often credited with "wining the Cold War without firing a shot." The Reagan Doctrine was a document that said the U.S. pledged to restore American military superiority and support anti-communist movements around the globe. Reagan created the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, which was a space based nuclear laser whose beams could destroy Soviet missiles before reaching U.S. targets. However, this plan was abandoned, and many people thought the plan intimidated the USSR. When Mikhail Gorbachev gained power in the USSR, he took down the Berlin Wall, after Reagan said to him in a speech in front of the wall, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
               This chapter of American Horizons contains themes of economics, politics and culture. When Jimmy Carter was president, the economy was in really bad shape. Energy prices were rising, there was a growing foreign trade deficit, and the dollar was falling in value. This caused inflation to rise to crisis levels, and unemployment was very high, between 6% and 7.5%. The American people even said they were economically worse off than they were before 1973. When Ronald Reagan came to office, oil prices dropped, and they were able to find a way to make inflation levels go down to just over 4%. There were new jobs, although they were less impressive when looked at the long term trends, and the total household income rose slightly, due to the fact that most housewives and mothers got jobs to get by, which shows that the economy wasn't doing as well as Americans believed although it was improving. Politics is also a theme in this chapter. Carter based his foreign policy off of his respect for human rights, and when the radical students in Iran seized the U.S. embassy, he was seen as weak because he didn't do anything to get the hostages released, and this made the American people very angry. When Reagan was running for president, he listed all of the things he wanted to do. He wanted to impose sharp tax cuts and aggressive business deregulation to improve the economy, and he wanted to put strict limits on abortion, restore school prayer, and have a more militant foreign policy. Although president Ford beat Reagan out of the primary, Reagan would come back to win against Jimmy Carter in the next election. One last theme in the chapter is culture. The diseases of AIDs and HIV appear in the U.S. during the 1980s, and it is something the American people have never seen before. It was typically found in gay men and drug users, and it was transmitted through bodily fluids, like semen and blood. These diseases would continue to spread in the U.S. through today.
               Chapter 30 of our textbook, American Horizons, is about what happened after the Cold War ended. The Cold War ended between 1989 and 1991, and in late 1991 the USSR disintegrated. The president at the time, George H. W. Bush, called for a New World Order. In the New World Order, the U.S. would lead multinational coalitions to enforce its standards of international behavior. By doing this, Bush peacefully navigated the fall of European communism. Bush also signed laws expanding civil rights and protecting the environment while he was in office. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 required government, businesses and educational institutions to make "reasonable accommodations" so that people with mental or physical disabilities could work and have the same access as fully abled people. Bush tried to govern from the center, but when he vetoed the stopgap budget, the government shut down for three days. The last big thing that happened during Bush's presidency was Operation Desert Storm. Operation Desert Storm was a response led by the United States to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
               Bill Clinton was elected president after George H. W. Bush. Clinton was seen as a "New Democrat", which is someone who believed in government as a positive force, but turned away from large Great Society-like programs. In December of 1991-March 2000, the United States economy experienced the longest period of uninterrupted growth since the economic expansion of the 1960s. Globalization began to occur, which is the knitting together of world economies through new information technology and the end of artificial political barriers of the Cold War. The U.S. supplied the world with technological innovations, food, weapons, and cultural exports such as films and software. Personal computers began to develop in the U.S., and people welcomed the Internet into their daily lives. Telecommunication also improved, which caused people to start working from home. These advancements improved both daily life and business. There was also rapid growth, low unemployment, low inflation, and an increase in investments in real estate during this time, although the income gap between the rich and the poor was still growing in the United States. The Human Gene Project was also underway. This project successfully charted the complete structure of human DNA, which opened a way for advances in research on cancer and other diseases. DNA testing gained greater acceptance and usage in the criminal justice community, using it to help solve crimes.
               Immigration was a hot topic during this time. Large numbers of immigrants from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East were arriving in the U.S. In 2000, 10.4% of Americans were foreign born, and there were over nine million legal immigrants that arrived during the decade. As many immigrants were moving to the U.S., many Americans were moving around the country too. There was a geographic trend of people moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the Sunbelt, and as immigrants moved to the cities, Americans moved to the suburbs. During the Clinton administration, there were tax increases and spending cuts to reduce the federal budget deficit, which is an ongoing problem. Then, in 1995, two angry army veterans who belonged to an anti-government and a white supremacist militia bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 people. This evet shocked the nation, and essentially was when terrorism began in this country. 
               Towards the end of Clinton's presidency, a scandal evolved. Clinton was accused of having a sexual affair inside and outside the White House with a twenty-one year old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Clinton lied about the affair ever happening, and his line "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" became famous. He in fact did have the affair, and the Republicans were prepared to impeach him for lying under oath. He was impeached, but then acquitted. In the midst of all this, Osama bin Laden, the Muslim extremist leader of Al Qaeda, became a national fear. He had a explosive-laden bomb be driven in a rental truck into the parking garage of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. The bomb failed to bring down the towers, but it did kill six people and injure over a thousand. Then in 1998, bin Laden declared that it was the duty of all Muslims to kill every American anywhere in the world. His anger towards the U.S. started because of the presence of U.S. troops in his homeland of Saudi Arabia during and after the Gulf War, the U.S.'s support of Israel, and the sense that the U.S. and the west expressed contempt for Muslim civilization. The American people would not expect what he would do in later years. During the next presidential election, there was controversy of who really won the election. George W. Bush was running against Al Gore. Gore received more popular votes than Bush, but they both received the same number of electoral votes in Florida. After a long debate and recount, the Supreme Court decided Florida's votes for Bush in a 5-to-4 decision. George W. Bush would become the next president of the United States of America.
               This chapter of American Horizons contains themes of culture, demography, and economics. The demography of the immigrants were no longer Europeans, but Latin Americans, Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners. While they moved into the cities, "white flight" continued, and white Americans kept moving out of the cities and into the suburbs while the immigrants and the poor minorities were living in the cities. There is also a theme of culture. There is new technology being developed during this time, along with new scientific advances. People are now owing personal computers, and the internet is being introduced into daily life. Telecommunication is improving, which allows people to work from home. The structure of DNA was successfully charted, which opened the door to new advances in research in cancer and other diseases, and also for DNA to be used in the criminal justice system to help solve crimes.
               Economics is also a theme in this chapter. During Clinton's administration, the economy experienced the longest period of uninterrupted growth since the 1960s, which is remarkable because of how poorly it was doing in the Carter administration. It was able to improve through the Reagan administration and Clinton administration. Globalization was occurring, which shows that the world economies were in good shape, and the U.S. was the leader of it all. There were tax increases and spending cuts during the Clinton administration to reduce the budget deficit, which would be a problem for years on end after Clinton's presidency. There was rapid growth, low unemployment, low inflation, and an increase in investments in real estate, although there was still an increasing income gap between the rich and the poor. All in all, the economy was doing much better than it was, and people were happy. By the time Bush came to office, he would be the only one to come to office with a surplus of money.
               Chapter 31 of American Horizons talks about the year 2000 to present day. In August 1998, bin Laden started attacking U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Clinton ordered air strikes against bin Laden's Afghan headquarters as a result. The CIA continued through Bush's presidency to track bin Laden down, but they failed to capture and kill him. Then, on September 11, 2001, bin Laden struck again. Nineteen Al Qaeda hijackers seized four American commercial airlines. Two of these planes hit the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. Both of the towers went down killing over 2,750 people. One of the planes went into the Pentagon, killing 184 people, and the last plane was meant to hit either the White House or the Capitol Building, but the passengers of the plane stormed the cockpit and the hijackers crashed the plane into a field southeast of Pittsburgh, killing everyone on board. The whole country was in awe and shock, and as a result, the Bush administration declared a full scale war on terror. Bush's foreign policy was to use force to sweep away dictatorial regimes around the world and replacing them with democratic governments committed to free markets and who are friendly to the United States. The Patriot Act was also created during his presidency. The Patriot Act expands the Justice Department's powers to conduct surveillance on terrorists suspects at home and abroad. In October, air strikes began in Afghanistan against the Taliban, and bin Laden found a safe haven in Pakistan. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the prison where the prisoners of Al Qaeda were held. Bush authorized the CIA to use "enhanced interrogation techniques" to obtain information from the prisoners. Critics called this technique torture. America also went to war with Iraq during Bush's administration. In late 2005, more than half of Americans thought the war with Iraq was a mistake. It was costly; $300 billion and rising, and there was too much death for both Americans and Iraqis.
               At home, Bush and Congressional Republicans pursued a more strict agenda of cultural and economic conservatism than Reagan. The Culture Wars began. There was now a ban of federal funds for stem cell research, and blocked federal aid to any family planning agency that even mentioned abortion as an option. There were also disputes that human activity had caused climate change. In addition to being against abortion, Bush was completely against gay marriage. He believed marriage is between a man and a women, and should stay that way. Bush also created the No Child Left Behind Act. The act renewed federal funding for several existing school programs and provided some additional money for reading and math instruction.
               After 9/11, many Americans were uneasy about immigration. They didn't want to see another terrorist attack happen. While this was going on, the economy took a turn for the worst. The housing market was doing great, and then in 2007 it collapsed. The Lehman Brother's bankruptcy triggered the Great Recession that the country entered, and the nation's economy and the world economy was in trouble. In 2008, Barak Obama was elected to be the new president to change things. He passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was a $787 billion economic stimulus bill. It included government spending on infrastructure, unemployment, benefits, food stamps and tax cuts. He also reformed healthcare. Many feared that his plan was just "socialized medicine", but it was passed anyway. Unemployment was around 9%, and the Republicans balked to raise the debt ceiling unless Obama agreed to steep spending cuts.
               In this chapter of American Horizons, there are themes of economics and culture. After September 11, 2001, America was never the same. Americans never forget those who lost their lives that day, and they carry around sorrow. After the attacks, many Americans were uneasy about immigration. They didn't want another attack happening. They also got angry. They wanted revenge on the people who did this to them and their country. I believe this is why the Bush administration wanted to go to war with Iraq so badly. They wanted to crush anyone who came past them and who was evil, even if they didn't cause the attacks on 9/11. There were also culture wars. The debate over abortion and gay marriage arose, and reforms in education, such as the No Child Left Behind Act.
               Economics is also a major theme in this chapter. When Bush came to office, there was a huge surplus of money. When he left office, the country had more debt than ever before. In 2007, the housing market crashed, along with Lehman Brother's declaring bankruptcy. The national economy and global economy was in a downwards spiral. Because of tax cuts and increased spending on wars and whatever else, the national debt was the highest it has ever been. Unemployment was extremely high, at 9%, and the economy was entering a Great Recession. This looks like the economy during Carter's time in office. The economy is plummeting, and unemployment is extremely high. Obama then comes into office to deal with these problems.
Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial:
               In the documentary "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial", by Nova, the town of Dover, PA, gets involved in a very controversial topic: whether evolution or intelligent design should be taught in high school science classes. Intelligent design is a pseudoscientific theory that certain features of the universe were created by an intelligent creator, not an undirected cause such as natural selection. The controversy in Dover, PA, began in October 2004. A student made a sixteen foot mural representing humans evolving from an ape-like ancestor. Some people found the mural offensive, and someone took it down and destroyed it. Bertha Spahr, a science teacher in the town's high school, was the first person to notice the trouble. She was informed that a school board member wanted creationism to be taught in the biology classes instead of evolution. The member who wanted this was a new member, Alan Bonsell. Bill Buckingham was also on the school board, and his job was to review the textbook requests. He saw that the textbook the science teachers wanted had a lot of Darwinism in it, and he wasn't comfortable approving it, because he, like Bonsell, was a creationist. The science teachers at Dover began to think that Buckingham had something to do with the mural disappearing, and they said they heard him say under his breath "he gleefully watched it burn", but he denied it to their faces. Buckingham then began looking for a textbook containing both creationism and evolution. He called the Thomas More Law Center, and they told him about intelligent design. They sent him DVDs and the textbook called "Of Pandas and People." Buckingham believed intelligent design was a good compromise. Then, sixty copies of the pandas book showed up in the science department by an anonymous donor, and the teachers were told they had to read a statement to the students saying that Darwinism was not a fact and has gaps, and instead they can refer to the pandas books. The teachers refused to read the statements, and parents were outraged, saying that this went against their right of the separation of church and state. The case went all the way to federal court, with the parents represented by the ACLU, and the school board represented by Thomas More Law Center. The trial went on for six weeks. There was no jury, just reporters and journalists. The judge, Judge Jones, would decide on the case. For the parents to win, they had to prove that the statement was promoting religion, or that the board members had religious intentions. Their lawyers asked if intelligent design was science or just religion in disguise, and they presented fossils that proved evolution. Genetics also put evolution to the test, and confirmed it in great detail. They also used things that the pandas textbook said to prove that intelligent design was just creationism in disguise. In the midst of the case, Buckingham resigned from the school board and moved out of the state. He also admitted he gave money donated by members of his church to Alan Bonsell, who's father bought the books for the school. In the next school board election, all available seats went to anti-intelligent design people. On December 20, 2005, Judge Jones gave his decision. He said that intelligent design is not science, and it is unconstitutional to teach it because intelligent design is religious. After the decision, the judge began receiving death threats. There are people that still disagree that evolution should be taught in schools, and this issue is certainly not over.
               This documentary by Nova is a perfect example of a culture war. The documentary said during the trial, it was like a civil war in the down of Dover, PA. The war was between supporters of creationism and their belief that it should be taught in schools, and supporters of evolution, who believe that evolution should be taught in schools. Although there is a clear separation of church and state, the people on the school board in Dover tried to get around that by saying intelligent design was another scientific theory, when in fact it was just religion in disguise. The people who supported intelligent design felt so strongly about it that the case went all the way to federal court. Although it is hard being a religious family having evolution taught in your public school, religion can't be taught because it is a public school, and church and state have to be separate.
Bush's War: Part One:  
                The documentary "Bush's War" by Frontline, is all about the War on Terror, and what happened behind the scenes. Part one of the documentary starts off with the attack on September 11, 2001, and that is the even that triggered the war. The attack was committed by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. The War on Terror would begin, and it would start with Afghanistan. In Bush's administration, his Vice President was Dick Cheney, his Secretary of State was Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld was his Secretary of Defense. Bush's top priority was Afghanistan, and he had the means to do whatever necessary wherever to whoever in time of war. Bush called for the Taliban to deliver the leaders of Al Qaeda to the U.S., however, they refused to do so. The U.S. would be fighting a new kind of war, a war against an invisible enemy.
               Bush wanted the CIA to be working on intelligence first, but Rumsfeld didn't trust the CIA and told Bush he didn't. Rumsfeld told Bush the CIA had to work for him, or it wouldn't work. The CIA was then in control of Rumsfeld. The U.S. Army had captured thousands of Al Qaeda prisoners, and they had authorization by Bush to keep prisoners out of citizen court and in military court. They were kept in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in camp X-ray. In Afghanistan, the Taliban was broken, and Al Qaeda was hiding out in the mountains, with thousands of members detained. After Afghanistan, the Bush administration wanted to go to war with Iraq, and get rid of the evil dictator in charge of the country, Saddam Hussein. Bush said that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, however, the CIA had no evidence linking Iraq to Al Qaeda, but Cheney continued to say there was. Rumsfeld then began withholding war plans. He forced the army to make new war plans, which included sending 140,000 men in rapid deployment to Baghdad. Powell and Rumsfeld were then at odds about post-war plans, and Powell advised Bush to go to the UN, which Cheney opposed. At the last minute, Bush asked the UN for a resolution, which represented a victory for Powell. Then, bin Laden started to send out video tapes and gained support. The U.S. interrogated the "20th hijacker", using drastic methods. The intelligence was getting no where, and the American public was unaware of the methods being used on the prisoners. In January, 2003, Bush declared war on Iraq. He said Saddam and his sons had 48 hours to leave Iraq, or the U.S. military would intervene at a time of their choice.
               This documentary by Frontline has themes of politics and culture. After the attacks on 9/11, Americans wanted the get the people responsible. They were angry and upset and sad about the attacks, and they wanted justice. Going to war with Afghanistan and Iraq meant this for Americans. However, Americans didn't know what was going on behind the scenes, and this documentary shows it. When deciding to go to war or not, there are political actions made also. Rumsfeld wanted control, and he told Bush that he had to be in charge if the CIA, or it wouldn't work. Rumsfeld and Cheney were longtime allies, and they worked together to make a plan to go to war with Iraq.
Bush's War: Part Two:
               Part two of "Bush's War" by Frontline, picks up where part one left off. The 48 hours were up, and the U.S. was going to invade Iraq at 8pm. Minutes after the deadline was up, the U.S. dropped bombs on Iraq. George Tenet, the director of the CIA at the time, received a tip where Saddam Hussein was. He rushed to the White House to tell the president. After the bombs were dropped, Saddam Hussein was thought to be dead. However, he was still alive. In three weeks, Saddam and his army disappeared, and the citizens of Iraq toppled the statue of Saddam and praised U.S. soldiers. However, after days of no authority, chaos erupted in Iraq, and people started looting the ministries. Cheney and Rumsfeld had a plan to send Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, to Iraq and set up a government. Powell was against this idea. Chalabi was sent to Iraq, but his efforts quickly failed. In Baghdad, the looting spread into homes, neighborhoods, shops, and kidnapping started. Jay Garner became Rumsfeld's back-up choice. No one told Garner the plan, so when he arrived in Iraq, he started planning elections. Back at home, Bush's National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, confronted Rumsfeld about the looting in Iraq. But he already had a plan. He was going to send in L. Paul Bremer III. Although Baghdad was burning for over a month with no government, no police, and no army, Bush wanted to assure the people of the United States that the major combat in Iraq was over. When Bremer first arrived in Baghdad, he made a thoughtless suggestion. He said why not just shoot the looters, and soon the press found out about this. Bremer had no military command, but he was going to treat Iraq like Nazi Germany, and get rid of Saddam's Ba'athist people. They then dismissed the Iraqi army, and people were now armed and knew how to use their weapons. Rice and Powell had no knowledge of this decision. All recommendations made by General Franks were being ignored, and as a result he retired. 
               The search for weapons of mass destruction continued, but it wasn't going very well. Tenet was blamed for the uranium part of Bush's State of the Union speech, and when asked about it he said they said it because they believed it to be true. He then resigned from his position as director of the CIA. The situation in Iraq got worse. There were now car bombing and assassinations, and a Sunni insurgency. America was in fact still at war. The Jordanian Embassy and the UN got blown up, and sending troops home was now out of the question. It was thought that the best way to end the chaos in Iraq was to give power and government to the Iraqis. Then, on December 13, Saddam Hussein was captured, and the violence began increasing. Four American contractors were murdered in the Sunni triangle and hung off a bridge for everyone to see. The U.S. Marines reacted and "did what Marines do", killing insurgents and civilians. They were then directed to just contain the insurgents. Al Sadr, a murderous thug, and his followers, were being funded by Iran. Finally, in June 2004, Bremer gave Iraq back to the Iraqis. A peace agreement was made with Sadr, he would accept U.S. occupation, and the U.S. would buy back weapons from him. Sunni insurgents then attack Fallujah, and the U.S. is victorious.
               When Bush is re-elected, he tells Powell to resign, and he replaces Powell with Rice. The first Iraqi elections are taken place, and millions of Iraqis line up to vote. However, the Sunnis boycott the elections. After the elections, the insurgency starts back up again. Rice wants to finish the job, coming up with the plan "clear-hold-build." Rumsfeld, on the other hand, wants the troops home. The troops are watching for insurgents and protecting the people, and then the holy Shiite mosque is bombed and the Shiites begin fighting back. When the votes are counted, the Shiites have won, and the government is dominated by religious Shiites. Maliki is the new leader of Iraq. In the summer of 2006, the United State's plan is failing. People are dying, and Iraq is burning. The U.S. kept sending more troops to Iraq, but then there weren't enough troops to send. The U.S. needed a new plan. Rice convinced Bush to replace Rumsfeld, and he listened. Bob Gates took Rumsfeld's place. Then, Sadr's supporters become part of Maliki's government. Saddam is guilty of murder, and is hanged by Sadr's people. The violence goes down in Iraq, and it is cautiously said that "clear-hold-build" was a success.         
                 This part of the documentary contains themes of politics. Throughout the entire war, the Bush administration had to make important decisions about what actions to take. People were being blamed for things that wasn't only their fault, and Bush replaced two of his cabinet members in one term. The administration wasn't working very well together either. They split into two sides for a number of topics. First, Cheney and Rumsfeld were supporters of Chalabi, and many others, like Powell, didn't trust him and was against it. Chalabi's actions in Iraq failed, however. They also became divided on what actions to take to end the war with a victory. Rumsfeld wanted to pull the troops out at the end, and Rice wanted to "finish what they had started", and that is what they did. Certain cabinet members were being left out of the loop on certain decisions, others were arrogant and wouldn't take orders from anyone except the president himself, like Bremer, and others were being completely ignored, like General Franks. The administration wasn't working very well together on the inside.                   
Buying the War:
                This documentary by Bill Moyers Journal, is about how the mainstream media was so wrong about the reasons for going to war with Iraq. Dan Rather is a journalist who talked with Bill Moyers. He told Bill that he can serve his country best by being the best journalist he can be, and by doing this he would be patriotic. News stations like CNN weren't showing what was really happening in Iraq, but stations like Fox News was. The reporters who wrote stories on how the administrations reasoning for war with Iraq was wrong didn't get their stories published, the stories supporting the war only got published. Many of the reporters writing the papers against the administration were from the Washington Press Corp. Other reporters began interviewing defectors from Iraq, who told them things that were going on there. The New York Times published a story, and many other journalists found errors in what the defector was saying, and errors with the story itself. They found that the defectors were exaggerating, and the facts of their stories didn't match up with the true facts. Bob Simon of 60 minutes told Bill that the media didn't know of any connections linking 9/11 to Iraq, but the administration kept pushing it. They kept pushing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that there was an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq, although neither of those were true. The majority of Americans believed the administration, and the stories against them didn't run in the papers. There was 140 cases of the Washington Post supporting the administration on the front page of the paper, and only a handful of the other side's stories on the back pages. People who had opposing opinions to the administration were looked down upon, unfashionable and risky. There were differences in what intelligence was telling the administration, and what the administration was telling the public. When the inspectors went to Iraq to look for evidence of weapons mass destruction, they didn't find any. When journalists learned the truth, they wondered if they were really supporting their troops, and if they failed to do they jobs.
               This documentary by Bill Moyers Journal contains the theme of culture. The president and their administration are supposed to be people that Americans can trust. When the administration started saying that Saddam was connected to Al Qaeda and 9/11, and American public believed him. They had trust in their president, and they didn't see any reason to not believe him. When the reporters started going against what the administration was saying, they were seen as risky and unfashionable, and the American people didn't want to believe them because they were going against their president and being unpatriotic. When the reporters realized they were wrong in supporting the administration, and the reporters who were against them were right, they felt like they betrayed the American public and their country by supplying them with false information.
Inside the Meltdown:
               This documentary by Frontline takes us inside the meltdown to see what really caused the crash of 2008. In spring 2008 after the housing bubble burst, the investment bank Bear Sterns' stock was going down, they were losing money and foreclosures were rising. People started to get nervous, and started pulling their money out. Alan Greenberg, the chairman of Bear Sterns at the time, said everything was fine. Bear Sterns was involved in major investments in subprime mortgages, and they were now stuck with investments that were declining in value. In order for them to survive, they would have to find more lenders to give them money. Tim Geithner originally thought that Bear Sterns should go under. Bear was involved in credit default swap. They were selling insurance, and if a bond goes belly-up then the bank pays you, but if it doesn't then you pay the bank. Bear owed hundreds of billions of dollars to people, and their inability to pay their debt made a cascade of problems. The FED then got involved. The FED wasn't allowed to directly give Bear money, so they indirectly lent money to them through JP Morgan. Henry Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and the Secretary of Treasury at the time, believed in moral hazard. Moral hazard is believing that if you bail someone out who caused their own problems, what will stop them from doing it again? Bear Sterns was then sold to JP Morgan for $2 a share.
               In the summer of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage lenders in the world, lost 60% of their stock values, and held $5 trillion in mortgages. Paulson realized that action needed to be taken. He didn't want to nationalize them, but he had to. One day later, Lehman Brothers was failing. The toxic investments that made Lehman brothers billions was now dragging them under. Their stock price was going lower and lower every day, and this turned into the largest crisis that Wall Street has seen since the Great Depression. Paulson insisted that Lehman Brothers had to find a buyer, and when they didn't, Paulson made the decision to let them fail. As a result, the banks stop lending, the credit markets start plunging, and everything froze. The declaration of bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is essentially what caused it all. The next one to fail is AIG. AIG did not have the money to support the commitments it made, and as a result the government now controlled it. Ben Bernanke, who was a chairman to the Federal Reserve, and Paulson decided they needed a full-scale bailout. Their bill for $7 billion of toxic assets to Paulson to bailout did not pass. They then revised the bill to contain capital injections, which is when billions of dollars are injected into banks to boost them. This revised bill did pass. The world economy was failing along with the American economy, and Paulson and Bernanke met with the top icons of Wall Street to tell them the banks were in deep trouble. They told them that the government was going to become a major stock holder, and that this was not a negotiation. $350 billion has been spent to try and save the banking system, and no one knows if it will turn around.
                This documentary by Frontline has a major theme of economics. The American economy was going in a downward spiral, and so was the world economy. Every investment bank on Wall Street was connected somehow, and when one tanked, it spread to the others. Lehman Brother's bankruptcy was the trigger of it all. Paulson let them fail because they didn't find a buyer. After that, everything started failing. Banks stopped lending, the credit markets were plunging, and everything froze. The two largest mortgage lenders in the world were also failing, and as a result the government took control of them. It was learned that if two of the world's largest companies can fail, then anyone can fail. It was like the Great Depression all over again. The things that were making the companies richer and richer were the things that were bringing them down. Although it is normal for the economy to go up and down, this was a major crisis that the country and the world is still recovering from today.
John Reed on Big Banks' Power and Influence:
               In this interview by Bill Moyers Journal, Bill talks with John Reed, the former chairman of Citigroup, about investment banks' power and influence. During the meltdown of 2008, Citigroup fired more than 50, 000 employees. Before the meltdown, however, Travelers and Citigroup wanted to merge. To do so, they had to take down Glass-Steagall. Glass-Steagall limited commercial bank activities and affiliations with securities firms. They had to take this down because they saw customers leaving the commercial banks and going to the investment banks when they would rather do everything themselves, but Glass-Steagall forbid them from doing so. In the process of removing Glass-Steagall, some Senators were uneasy about doing so. Looking back on it, Reed believes they got carried away by the enthusiasm when they got rid of Glass-Steagall. They were selling things that shouldn't have been sold, such as high-doc and low-doc mortgages, and they were only in it to make money. Reed said the government had no choice but to bailout the banks, because they couldn't let them fail because they had too much influence. Reed said that the lesson has still not been learned, and the system can get it wrong at any time. Despite what happened in 2008, Reed believes that Wall Street still has too much power, and rules need to be implemented to restrict their power.
               This interview by Bill Moyers with John Reed has a theme of economics. The big investment banks wanted to gain more power and make more money in whatever way they could, and they changed the rules in order to do so. When Travelers and Citigroup wanted to merge, they had to get rid of Glass-Steagall to do so, and that is what they did. They began selling things that shouldn't have been sold, and soon the companies went under due to the meltdown. The government had to bail the banks out, because they had too much power and too much influence, and if all of the banks failed, the U.S. economy and the world economy would be in big trouble. The people working at the banks were being greedy, trying to gain as much money and power and they possibly could doing whatever they had to to do so. As a result, the economy went into a downward spiral.
David Stockman on Crony Capitalism:
               In this interview by Bill Moyers Journal, Bill talks to David Stockman about crony capitalism. Crony capitalism is when the U.S. government is used to deliver favors to friends in the business world, while the rest of Americans pay for it. David Stockman was president Reagan's budget director, and he help Reagan usher in the largest tax cut. He wrote two books, "The Triumph of Crony Capitalism: Inside the Story of the Reagan Revolution" and "The Triumph of Crony Capitalism." Stockman talks to Bill about how crony capitalism is the aggressive and proactive use of political resources, such as lobbying, to gain something from the government. In the process of crony capitalism, the long-term implications weren't thought through, which led to the 2008 economic crisis. Stockman believes that if the government let the banks fail, it wouldn't have spread to the rest of the economy. He believes that you can't save a free enterprise system by suspending the rules of free enterprise when they are most needed. He tells Bills that he believes there should be a reinstitution of Glass-Steagall, but have it be more strict, and if a company or bank is too big to fail, then they are too big to exist. When the bailout of banks started in 1994, it made people think that the government would always be there to save them if they got into trouble. Stockman says that there is an "entitled class" in America who believes that the government is there to do whatever necessary to save them. Stockman says that to fix this problem, it is going to take something even more traumatic than the crisis of 2008. He says that the big banks that were too big to fail back then, are even bigger now. He believes that corporations should get out of politics completely, along with money, and in order for this to happen, a Constitutional amendment needs to be implemented.
               This interview by Bill Moyers has an obvious theme of economics. America has capitalism as it's economics system. In capitalism, trade, industry and the means of production are all controlled by the people in a goal to make profits in a free market economy. David Stockman does not believe that this is the economic system America has anymore. He thinks that government is getting too involved in corporations and banks, by bailing them out when they get in trouble, when in capitalism, that is not what you do to fix things. The government is getting too involved, and to solve this problem, we are going to have to experience something even worse than the meltdown of 2008, which is very scary to think about. And the banks and corporations keep growing. They are bigger than they ever were before, and if they fail again, the outcome will be traumatic. Stockman believes that crony capitalism is taking over our economy, and if a lesson isn't learned, things are only going to keep getting worse.
Ten Trillion and Counting:
               This documentary by Frontline talks about how the national debt keeps rising. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States. American citizens hoped that he could lead the country back from the path they went down. He inherited frozen finances and extremely high unemployment from the Bush administration, and he talked like he as going to spend even more money during his presidency. When Obama was inaugurated, the debt was over $10 trillion, and it continues to rise. To fix this, the government can't keep doing what they are doing. When George W. Bush came to office, he was the only president to come into a surplus of money. He then cut taxes, but he also started borrowing money, and along with the two wars during his presidency, the debt rose. During a time of war, presidents usually raise taxes to pay for the war. Even LBJ did this during the Vietnam War, but Bush refused to. He passed one of the largest tax cuts in American history. He also signed Medicare Part D, which would cost $60 billion for one year. The PAYGO rule that was applied in the past, where you had to figure out a way to pay for your ideas before implementing them, did not apply here. Bush signed the largest spending bill, and during his first five years as president, he did not veto one spending bill. The surplus he came into office with was gone, and Obama was left with a mess. When Obama came into office and tried to pass his stimulus plan, there would be fights about whether to pass it or not, because it would be expensive. However, it eventually passed. He also wanted to reform healthcare, which would also be very expensive. The Obama administration defended the reasoning for healthcare reform by saying that spending the money to reform healthcare will in the end save the money. However, the biggest threat to the nation's balance sheet is the cost of healthcare. The government keeps borrowing money, so much to the point that the Chinese expressed how worried they were to Obama, and he had to reassure them. It is estimated that by 2017, the national debt will be more than the entire economic output of the country.
               The main theme of this documentary is also economics. When Bush came to office, there was a surplus, and he is the only president to inherit a surplus. He cut taxes, and even cut taxes during wartime when presidents usually raise taxes to pay for the war. He continued to spend, and by the time Obama came to office, the debt was over $10 trillion. Now that Obama is on office, he also continues to spend and borrow money. It got to the point where China expressed their concerns about all of the borrowing the U.S. was doing from them, and Obama had to reassure them about it. Things are continuing to worsen, and they are only going to get worse. Although the economy is doing a little better than in was during the time of the 2008 crisis, the national debt is getting worse, and nothing is being done to keep it from rising.
Winner Take All Politics:
               In this interview by Bill Moyers with Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, they explore how the income inequality in the country didn't just happen on its own, it was politically engineered. Many people in this country are struggling, and we see the middle class fading. Wages are at al all time low, and we see the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson are two of the nation's top political scientists. Their book "Winner Take All Politics", is about how Washington made the rich richer, and turned its back on the middle class, and as a result inequality has grown in America. This is not an issue of the have vs. the have nots, it is an issue of the have it alls vs. the rest of Americans, and the American government is responsible for why this is happening. Bill asked how and why Washington would be doing this, and the answer was simple: they did it through organized combat, and they did it because they could. The organization of American politics has changed, it has become much more influential, and money matters much more in politics now than it used to. Hacker and Pierson's solution to the deficit is to let the Bush tax cuts run out on the wealthy, and then democracy will bring itself up by its bootstraps. The two say that there is no more middle class in this country, and when the middle class was asked if the government helped them, only 2% of Americans in the middle class said the government helped them a great deal. Overall, Washington isn't working well for most Americans. A survey was done that asked if people believed the American dream still held true, and only about half of Americans said it did. These "winners" have more money to contribute to politicians who create the winner take all politics, and Hacker and Pierson believe that if politics got us into this, then politics can get us out.
               This interview has themes of economics and politics. As the rich keep getting richer, the middle class is declining, and people are getting poorer. Unemployment is extremely high, wages are low, and people are in trouble. While all this is going on, the 1% is still making big bucks. They are contributing their money to politicians for their campaigns, and the way of politics has completely changed. It isn't about who has the best ideas that will win the election, its about who has the most money. People in this country are suffering, and the politicians in Washington aren't doing anything about it. This needs to change, and since politics got us into this mess, politics can get us out.
               Throughout this time period, and in every video and reading we were assigned, economics has been a hot topic. Although it is normal for the economy to have its booms and busts, it has been a series of busts for a very long time now. Everything started happening at once, and it was a lot for the people in charge to handle. Some bad decisions were made, but since they were made we can learn from them and if this ever happens again, we will be more prepared. There are a lot of opinions that are out there about what should be done, however, no one knows which is the right answer to solve the problems we are facing. It will take a long time for the economy to be back where it was when Bush first took office, but one day it will hopefully be back there.
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