Monday, May 10, 2010

test - good luck!

GOOD LUCK TODAY SADIE! TEST AT 1:00!! Keep focused and write, write, write. You know all this stuff, just word it nicely and keep your cool :)

Friday, May 7, 2010

Thomas Kean

Thomas Howard Kean is an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 48th Governor of New Jersey, from 1982 to 1990. Kean is best known globally, however, for his 2002 appointment as Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the 9/11 Commission, which was responsible for investigating the causes of the September 11, 2001 attacks and providing recommendations to prevent future terrorist attacks. He was appointed to this post by U.S. President George W. Bush. Upon the completion of his second term as Governor, he served as the president of Drew University for 15 years, until his retirement in 2005.

Nixon Doctrine

Nixon Doctrine -

The Nixon Doctrine (also known as the Guam Doctrine) was put forth in a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969 by U.S. President Richard Nixon. He stated that the United States henceforth expected its allies to take care of their own military defense, but that the U.S. would aid in defense as requested. The Doctrine argued for the pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies.

In Nixon's own words (Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam November 3, 1969):[1]

  • First, the United States will keep all of its treaty commitments.
  • Second, we shall provide a shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of a nation allied with us or of a nation whose survival we consider vital to our security.
  • Third, in cases involving other types of aggression, we shall furnish military and economic assistance when requested in accordance with our treaty commitments. But we shall look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for its defense.

The doctrine was also applied by the Nixon administration in the Persian Gulf region, with military aid to Iran and Saudi Arabia, so that these U.S. allies could undertake the responsibility of ensuring peace and stability in the region.[2] According to author Michael Klare,[3] application of the Nixon Doctrine "opened the floodgates" of U.S. military aid to allies in the Persian Gulf, and helped set the stage for the Carter Doctrine and for the subsequent direct U.S. military involvement of the Gulf War and the Iraq War.

Carl Bernstein

Carl Bernstein (pronounced /ˈbɜrnstiːn/ BURN-steen) (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who, as a reporter for The Washington Post along with Bob Woodward, broke the story of the Watergate break-in and consequently helped bring about the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon. For his role in breaking the scandal, Bernstein received many awards; his work helped earn the Post a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1973.

EEOC Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an independent federal agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability and retaliation for reporting and/or opposing a discriminatory practice. It is empowered to file discrimination suits against employers on behalf of alleged victims and to adjudicate claims of discrimination brought against federal agencies.

ERA

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which was intended to guarantee that equal rights under any federal, state, or local law could not be denied on account of sex. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul. In 1972, it passed both houses of Congress, but failed to gain ratification before its June 30, 1982 deadline.
Although the Nineteenth Amendment had prohibited the denial of the right to vote because of a person's sex, Alice Paul, a suffragette leader, argued that this right alone would not end remaining vestiges of legal discrimination based upon sex.

OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is a cartel of twelve countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings among the oil ministers of its Member Countries. According to its statutes, one of the principal goals is the determination of the best means for safeguarding the cartel's interests, individually and collectively. It also pursues ways and means of ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations; giving due regard at all times to the interests of the producing nations and to the necessity of securing a steady income to the producing countries; an efficient and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations, and a fair return on their capital to those investing in the petroleum industry. OPEC's influence on the market has been widely criticized, since it became effective in determining production and prices. Arab members of OPEC alarmed the developed world when they used the “oil weapon” during the Yom Kippur War by implementing oil embargoes and initiating the 1973 oil crisis. Although largely political explanations for the timing and extent of the OPEC price increases are also valid, from OPEC’s point of view, these changes were triggered largely by previous unilateral changes in the world financial system and the ensuing period of high inflation in both the developed and developing world. This explanation encompasses OPEC actions both before and after the outbreak of hostilities in October 1973, and concludes that “OPEC countries were only “staying even” by dramatically raising the dollar price of oil.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks - was a seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1st 1955 she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was arrested and charged with violating a local segregation ordinance. Parks' act was not a spur of the moment decision that it seemed. A women of a perfect reputation and long NAACP member, she had been chosen to play that part. Once the die was cast the black community turned to Reverend MLK for leadership. This act inspired the Civil Rights movement.

Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Diem, an anti-Communist Catholic who had been living in America, returned to Vietnam as a premier. The next year, in a rigged election, Diem became president of an independent South Vietnam. Facing certain defeat by the popular Ho Chi Minh, Diem called off the reunification elections scheduled for 1956. March 1956 France left Vietnam and USA took over - American battle to contain Communism - in South East Asia. To prop him up, Eiesenhower administration sent Diem 200 Million a year in aid and 675 American Military advisors. Few Americans and even Eiesnehower had no idea where this lead. Nov. 1. 1963 Diem is overthrown and assasinated.

March Against Death

March Against Death - Antiwar protesters announce that they will organize a 36-hour "March Against Death" to take place in Washington in November; there will be a simultaneous rally in San Francisco. This effort was led by Dr. Benjamin Spock and 10 other representatives of the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. (1969)

Port Huron Statement

The Port Huron Statement is the manifesto of the American student activist movement Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, and completed on June 15, 1962 at an SDS convention at what is now a state park in Lakeport, Mich., a community north of Port Huron.

The Port Huron Statement challenged what it viewed as most Americans' complacency with the status quo, though it blamed much of such complacency upon the efforts of an entrenched power elite to maintain its status,

"The apathy here is, first subjective — the felt powerlessness of ordinary people, the resignation before the enormity of events. But subjective apathy is encouraged by the objective American situation — the actual structural separation of people from power, from relevant knowledge, from pinnacles of decision making. . . . The American political system is not the democratic model of which its glorifiers speak. In actuality it frustrates democracy by confusing the individual citizen, paralyzing policy discussion, and consolidating the irresponsible power of military and business interests."[11]

Although some critics have accused The Port Huron Statement of espousing Marxist beliefs,[12] the statement itself strongly condemned communism.

Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After his term, his opinion was still sought out by many following presidents.

A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with China, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. His role in the bombing of Cambodia and other American interventions abroad during this period remains controversial.

Kissinger is still a controversial figure today.[2] He was honored as the first recipient of the Ewald von Kleist Award of the Munich Conference on Security Policy and currently serves as the chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm. Kissinger was the "most frequent visitor" to the George W. Bush White House as an unofficial political adviser on Israel and the Middle East—including the Iraq War

Betty Friedan


Betty Friedan is a leading figure in the "Second Wave" of the U.S. Women's Movement, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is sometimes credited with sparking the "second wave" of feminism. Friedan co-founded National Organization for Women in 1966 which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men". She also wrote the book Our Wayward Sons.

In 1970, after stepping down as NOW's first president in 1969, Friedan organized the nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality on August 26, the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote. The national strike was successful beyond expectations in broadening the feminist movement. The New York City march alone attracted over 50,000 women.

Oliver North

Oliver North is best known for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. North was at the center of national attention during the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. North was a National Security Council member involved in the clandestine sale of weapons to Iran, which served to encourage the release of U.S. hostages from Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan: diverting proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel group in Nicaragua. North was charged with several felonies and convicted of three, but the convictions were later vacated, and the underlying charges dismissed due to the limited immunity agreement granted for his pre-trial public Congressional testimony about the affair.

Black Power

Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies.[1] It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States.[2] Most prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the movement emphasized racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests,[3] advance black values,[4].

"Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of separate social institutions and a self-sufficient economy (separatism). Not only did this "Black Power" movement encourage separatism, but it helped usher in black radical thought, and action against what was considered to be an elusive, yet visible higher power. The earliest known usage of the term is found in a 1954 book by Richard Wright titled Black Power.[5] New York politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used the term on May 29, 1966 during a baccalaureate address at Howard University: "To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power."[6]


Peace with Honor

"Peace with Honor" was a phrase U.S. President Richard M. Nixon used in a speech on January 23, 1973 to describe the Paris Peace Accord to end the Vietnam War. The phrase is a variation on a campaign promise Nixon made in 1968: "I pledge to you that we shall have an honorable end to the war in Vietnam."[1] The treaty specified that a ceasefire would take place four days later. According to the plan, within sixty days of the ceasefire, the North Vietnamese would release all U.S. prisoners, and all U.S. troops would withdraw from South Vietnam. On March 29, the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam. In April 1975, Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops.[

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

“The Problem with No Name”

For her 15th college reunion in 1957, Friedan conducted a survey of College graduates, focusing on their education, their subsequent experiences and satisfaction with their current lives. She started publishing articles about what she called "the problem with no name," and got passionate responses from many housewives grateful that they were not alone in experiencing this problem.

The "Problem That Has No Name" was described by Friedan in the beginning of the book:

"The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning [that is, a longing] that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — 'Is this all?"

John Sirica


John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904–August 14, 1992) was the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the Watergate scandal. He rose to national prominence during the Watergate scandal when he ordered the President Richard Nixon to turn over his recordings of White House conversations.

Sirica's involvement in the case began when he presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars. He did not believe the claim that they had acted alone, and persuaded or coerced them to implicate the men who had arranged the break-in. For his role in Watergate the judge was named TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1973.

He was nicknamed "Maximum John" for giving defendants the maximum sentence guidelines allowed.

Mark Felt - Deep Throat

Mark Felt - Deep Throat
was an agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director. After denying his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for 30 years, Felt revealed himself on May 31, 2005, to be the Watergate scandal's whistleblower, "Deep Throat."

Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, D.C. During the early investigation of the Watergate scandal (1972–74), and shortly after the death of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in May 1972, Felt was the Bureau's Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the FBI. While Associate Director, Felt provided Washington Post reporter Woodward with critical leads on the story that eventually saw the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. In 1980, Felt was convicted of the felony of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground Organization, by ordering FBI agents to search their homes as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a $7,000 fine but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal. In 2006, he published an update of his 1979 autobiography, The FBI Pyramid. His last book, written with John O'Connor, is titled A G-Man's Life.

Felt's leaks to Woodward spurred the investigations that led to Nixon's resignation.

Joan Baez

Joan Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter and activist. Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato, and her recordings have included topical songs and material dealing with social issues. She helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence, and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil and human rights and the environment.

"Mother's Little Helper," - Valium

Valium, the drug that revolutionized the treatment of anxiety and became a cultural icon, is 40 years old this year.

The drug owes its success to the stubborn streak of chemist Leo Sternbach, who refused to quit after his boss at Hoffmann-La Roche ended a project to develop a tranquilizer to compete with a rival company's drug.

Sternbach tested one last version and in just a day, he got results: The compound made animals relaxed and limp.

Sternbach had made the discovery that led to Valium. Approved for use in 1963, it became the country's most prescribed drug from 1969 to 1982.

"It had no unpleasant side effects. It gave you a feeling of well-being," Sternbach, 95, said. "Only when the sales figures came in, then I realized how important it was."

The Roche Group, Hoffman-La Roche's parent, sold nearly 2.3-billion pills stamped with the trademark "V" at its 1978 peak.

While its name was derived from the Latin word for being strong, Valium soon picked up nicknames: "Executive Excedrin," for its use by the corporate jet set, and "Mother's Little Helper," after the title of a Rolling Stones tune about an overstressed housewife who "goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper."

Kent State University


The Kent State shootings – also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacreoccurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.[5]The protest, originally called to protest the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, had morphed into a protest against the presence of the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State campus.

George Wallace

George Wallace was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S. president four times, running officially as a Democrat three times and in the American Independent Party once. A 1972 assassination attempt left him paralyzed and a wheelchair user for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his Southern populist pro-segregation attitudes during the American desegregation period, convictions he renounced later in life.

"Blowin' in the Wind"

"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".[1]

In 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Saturday Night Massacre

The Saturday Night Massacre was the term given by political commentators[1] to U.S. President Richard Nixon's executive dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on October 20, 1973 during the Watergate scandal.
A lot more to it, really: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

On October 20, 1973, at the height of the Watergate scandal, an event called the "Saturday Night Massacre" took place at the hands of sitting president Richard Nixon. He ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Cox had denied President Nixon's request that instead of turning over recorded conversations he accept summarizations of the Watergate tapes. Rather than execute this order, Richardson resigned his position from the Justice Department in protest. When Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused to comply with President Nixon's request, Nixon fired him, although Ruckelshaus had already written a letter of resignation. The order to fire Cox was ultimately carried out by Solicitor General Robert Bork, but much damage had been done. In the immediate aftermath of the event, Richardson and Ruckelshaus held a live, televised press conference in which Richardson declared, "At stake, in the final analysis, is the very integrity of the governmental processes I came to the Department of Justice to help restore."

National Organization for Women (NOW)


The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members and 5,987 chapters in 47 U.S. states (exceptions are Hawaii, North Dakota, and Maine) and the District of Columbia.

Shah Pahlavi

Shah Pahlavi was the emperor of Iran from 16 September 1941, until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979. He was the second and last monarch of the House of Pahlavi of the Iranian monarchy. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi held several titles: His Imperial Majesty, Shahanshah (King of Kings,[1] Emperor), Aryamehr (Light of the Aryans) and Bozorg Arteshtārān (Head of the Warriors,[2] Persian: بزرگ ارتشتاران).

EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA was created by the Nixon administration in 1970. The EPA charged to protect human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, when its establishment was passed by Congress, and signed into law by President Nixon, and has since been chiefly responsible for the environmental policy of the United States. It is led by its Administrator, who is appointed by the President of the United States.

Monday, May 3, 2010

All the Presidents Men

Is a book and movie written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The book shows the process it took for the two men to uncover the truth behind the Watergate scandal. Woodward used his secret source "Deep Throat" (Mark Felt) who was an FBI agent. Felt gave Woodward many leads which ultimately revealed Nixon being behind the scandal. The two reports showed the country what was really going on in Washington and pretty much took down a president, through their writing and show what a liar Nixon was.

Fragging

In the U.S. military, fragging refers to the act of attacking a superior officer with a fragmentation grenade.[1] The term originated in the Vietnam War and was most commonly used to mean assassination of an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit, often by means of a fragmentation grenade, hence the term. Although the term is derived from the grenade, the act was more commonly committed with firearms during combat in Vietnam.

Though not necessarily true, the reason for choosing a fragmentation grenade is to avoid culpability for the killing. The grenade can be thrown in the heat of battle and soldiers can claim that the grenade mistakingly landed too close to the person they "accidentally" killed. Unlike killing with a firearm, death by a shrapnel grenade cannot be readily traced to anyone, with ballistics forensics or otherwise. The grenade itself is detroyed in the explosion, and the resulting shrapnel shows no traceable characteristics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging

Gulf War

From Joy Hakim's "Freedom: A History Of Us" - (pg. 386) Saddam Hussein, dictator of the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq, sends troops into neighboring Kuwait, a small, oil-rich kingdom, and the president (George H.W. Bush) quickly leads a forceful response in partnership with the United Nations. Talking to other world leaders directly, he gets hesitant Arab chiefs to agree to back sanctions against the aggressor. The brief Gulf War is labeled Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War helped to set up the next Iraq war, when George W. Bush was in office.