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election 2000/ punch card controversy/ katherine harris: in the election Gore had won by a thin margin in the popular vote, but because no one could determine who won Florida, both candidates remained short of the 270 electorates needed. After a mandatory recount Bush led Gore by 300 votes. But in a number of Florida counties, including most heavily Democratic ones, votes were cast by a punch-card ballot system, notoriously inaccurate, and as a result many of the ballots were either not counted or miscounted. So the Gore campaigned asked for had recounts of punch-card ballots in three critical counties. The Bush administration immediately struck back in court and through the Republican Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, who had worked actively on the Bush campaign. She refused to authorize the recounts and declined to extend a deadline for making an official certification.
saddam hussein: Beginning in 1998, the United States found itself once again in conflict with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who balked at the agreements he had signed at the end of the Gulf War and refused to permit international inspectors to examine military sites in his country. Clinton responded by ordering a series of American bombing strikes at military targets in Iraq.
clarence thomas/ anita hill: Thomas, President Bush's nominee for a seat on the SC was accused of sexual harassment from Anita Hill, a law professor and former employee of Thomas, her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee dramatically polarized the Senate and the nation. Feminist and others believed the accusations and hailed the accuser for drawing attention to the issue, while many Americans apparently did not believe her. Thomas was ultimately confirmed by a narrow margin.
stem cell research: a heated controversy emerged over one of the most promising areas of medical research, the use of stem-cells, genetic material obtained in large part from undeveloped fetuses, mostly fetuses created by couples attempting in vitro fertilization, process by which a fetus conceived outside the womb is then implanted in the mother. Anti- abortion advocates denounced the research, claiming it exploited unborn children. Supporters argued that stem cells being used came from unused fetuses, and could help offer cures for incurable illnesses and conditions.
multiculturalism: the effort to legitimize the cultural pluralism of the rapidly diversifying American population.
enron coroporation/ arthur andersen: the Enron collapse was only the first of a series of corporate scandals that attracted both median and popular attention and did grave damage to public confidence in corporate leadership. Major companies admitted their reported earnings exaggerated their real income, and major accounting firms (most notably Arthur Andersen, the Enron accountant) came under intense public and legal scrutiny for failing to give reliable accounts of the corporate finances they were supposed to monitor.
AIDS epidemic: the spread of a new and lethal disease first documented in 1981, AIDS is the product of the HIV virus, which is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids, the virus gradually destroys the immune systems and makes victims vulnerable to diseases they would normally have a resistance to. The first victims which were homosexual men were virtually certain to die, and eventually the disease spread further across the country and in other nations like Africa.
kenneth star: the revelations produced a new investigation by the independent counsel in the Whitewater case, Kenneth Star, a former judge and official in the Reagan Justice Department. Starr had no results in the Whitewater case, but he resurfaced as a major threat to the president with a vigorous effort to prove that the president had lied under oath and had advised others to lie as well. Clinton forcefully denied the charges, and the public strongly backed him.
Hilary Rodham Clinton/ Clinton Health plan: in 1993, Clinton appointed a task force chaired by his wife, which proposed a sweeping reform designed to guarantee coverage to every American and hold down the costs of medical care. Too much opposition existed both on the left and the right, and in September 1994, Congress abandoned the healthcare reform effort.
international monetary fund: a global institution that controlled international credit and exchange rates.
bush v. gore: The Bush and Gore campaign battled repeatedly in Florida Supreme Court over the recounts in Florida, and when the court ordered the recounts, Bush appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court divided along party lines, the conservative majority ruled overrule Florida Supreme Court's order and insisted that any recount be completed by December 12th (this was impossible as they issued the order late at night on the 12th) and argued that the standards for evaluating punch card ballots were too arbitrary and unfair to withstand constitutional scrutiny. The court was certainly divided on the issues, as they had decided one of the most controversial victories in the history of American presidential elections.
love canal/ 3 mile island: some of the highly environmental catastrophes that increased the environmentalist's commitment were a major oil spill off Santa Barbara, California; the discovery of large deposits of improperly disposed toxic waste in the residential community of Love Canal in upstate New York; a frightening accident at the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, and the largest oil spill in American history in Alaska in 1989.
Bill Clinton/ Whitewater affairs: Vince Foster, longtime friend of the president, serving in the office of the White House counsel, committed suicide in the summer of 1993, and sparked an escalating inquiry into some banking and real estate ventures involving the president and his wife in the early 1980's, an independent counsel began examining the issues.
the culture wars: the battle and the controversy of multiculturalism, or a change in American society, which was now working to include all the nation's diverse peoples. This time was often an expression of confidence in society's ability to tolerate and understand its many differences.
monica lewinsky: In early 1998, inquiries led to charges that the president had had a sexual relationship with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky; that he had lied about in his deposition before Paula Jones's attorneys and that he had encouraged Lewinsky to do the same.
timothy McVeigh/ Oklahoma City bombing: in April 1995, a van containing explosives blew up in front of a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh, a former Marine who had become part of a militant anti- government movement on the right, was convicted of the crime and eventually executed in 2001.
Human genome project: slowly, and with little funding scientists who worked for the National Center for the Human Genome began to identify specific genes in humans and other living things that determine particular traits and map these human genes. New technologies for research along with competition with other projects allowed the project to move forward faster, and the Human Genome Project had the 100,000 genes mapped by 2003.
Ross Perot: Clinton was an advocate of free trade, and after a long difficult battle against this man, the AFL-CIO and Democrats in Congress, he won approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
world trade organization: a multinational institution that policed and advanced the global economy monitored the enforcement of the GATT treaties of the 1990's.
General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs: another agreement Clinton won approval of, this was a more far-reaching trade agreement negotiation.
kosovo/ slobodon milosevic: Kosovo, Serbian-dominated province of Yugoslavia, whose residents were mostly Albanian Muslims, became involved in a savage civil war that erupted between Kosovo nationalists and Serbians, and world opinion was slowly roused. In May 1990, NATO forces began a major bombing campaign against the Serbians, which after a little more than a week led the leader of Yugoslavia, Milosevic, to agree to a ceasefire, and Serbian troops withdrew from Kosovo entirely, replaced by NATO peace keeping forces.
bosnia/ richard holbrooke: Yugoslavia a nation created after WWI out of a group of small Balkan countries again dissolved into several different nations. Bosnia, one of these nations became embroiled in bloody civil war between tow major ethnic groups; one Muslim, the other Serbian and Christian (backed by neighboring Serbian republic). All efforts by European nations and the US to negotiate an end to the struggle failed until this American negotiator finally brought the warring parties together and crafted an agreement to partition Bosnia.
clinton impeachment: after Clinton confessed before a jury that he and Lewinsky had an improper relationship, the prospect of impeachment became an issue, especially in the congressional elections. The House narrowly approved 2 counts of impeachment; lying to the grand jury and obstructing justice, and the matter moved to the Senate where a trial continued for weeks without generating any significant public support. It ended with a decisive acquittal of the president.
political correctness: multiculturalism complained of a tyranny of "political correctness" by which feminists, cultural radical, and others introduced a new form of intolerance to public discourse in the name of defending the rights of women and minorities.
world trade center bombing of 1993: in February 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in NY killing six people and causing serious, but not irreparable, structural damage to the towers. Several men connected with militant Islamic organizations were convicted of the crime.
graying of america: the aging of the American population, or increase of the proportion of elderly citizens, caused by a declining birth rate and increased life expectancy. Caused an increase in costliness of Social Security pensions, rapid increase in health costs, and meant the elderly would be politically formidable.
webster v. reproductive health services: the court upheld a Missouri law that forbade any institution receiving state funds from performing abortions, whether or not those funds were used to finance the abortions. The Court stopped short of overturning the 1973 decision.
alan greenspan: the most powerful figure in the American economy, chairman of the Federal Board, warned in 1999 of the "irrational exuberance" with which Americans were pursuing profits in the stock market.
war on drugs: as there was a dramatic increase in drug use, and demand for illegal drugs, especially "crack" cocaine, political figures of both parties spoke heatedly about the need for a "war on drugs", but government efforts to stop drug imports and reduce demand had little effect.
LA riots/ rodney king: inner city residents began to express their anger and despair over their living conditions through artistic means, and in the summer of 1992 their frustration came to the surface in Los Angeles. A year before, a bystander had videotaped several Los Angeles police officers beating an apparently helpless black man, Rodney King, whom they had captured after an auto chase. The footage evoked outrage in many citizens, but the police officers were acquitted and as a result one of the larges racial disturbances including looting, arson and more than fifty deaths took place.
OJ simpson trials: This case gained world wide exposure because OJ was a star football player and was accused of murdering his wife. Opinions about his quilt broke down racial lines; whites thought he was guilty, blacks innocent. The main issue in this case that may have caused turmoil was the allowing cameras in the courtroom.
North American Free Trade Agreement: after hard work, Clinton was able to pass this, which eliminated trade barriers among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
newt gingrich: after the disagreement in the federal government over the budget between Republican leaders and the president, Public opinion turned quickly and powerfully against the Republican leadership and against much of its agenda. This controversial Republican Speaker of the House, quickly became one of the most unpopular political leaders in the nation, while President Clinton slowly improved his standing in the polls.
dolly: in 1997 scientists announced that they had cloned a sheep using a cell from an adult ewe; in other words, the genetic structure of the newborn Dolly was identical to that of the sheep from which the cell was taken.
Right to life movement/ pro choice movement: by the 1980's abortion was the most commonly performed surgical procedure in the country, the right to life movement had supporters among Catholics and other religions, even though their commitment was not necessarily religious, but to traditional notions of family and gender relations. Defenders of abortion rights were not so much defenders of abortion as defenders of every woman's right to choose whether and when to bear a child. During this time the strength of abortion rights and regulations depended on the beliefs of who was in office.
the new world order: to many Americans the nation's increasingly interventionist foreign policy was troubling, some charged that the US was using military action to advance economic interests, and others claimed that the nation was allowing itself to be swayed by the interests of other nations.

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Number of cards 36