title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: An appeal for help by the British communities was, according to Zosimus, rejected by the Emperor Honorius in 410 AD. In the text called the "Rescript of Honorius" of 411, the Western Emperor Honorius tells the British "civitates" to look to their own defence as his regime was still fighting usurpers in the south of Gaul and trying to deal with the Visigoths who were in the very south of Italy. The first reference to this rescript is written by the sixth-century Byzantine scholar Zosimus and is located randomly in the middle of a discussion of southern Italy; no further mention of Britain is made, which has led some, though not all, modern academics to suggest that the rescript does not apply to Britain, but to Bruttium in Italy.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: Historian Christopher Snyder wrote that protocol dictated that Honorius address his correspondence to imperial officials, and the fact that he did not implies that the cities of Britain were now the highest Roman authority remaining on the island. The idea that there may have been larger-scale political formations still intact on the island has not been completely discredited however.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: At the time that the "Rescript" was sent, Honorius was holed up in Ravenna by the Visigoths and was unable to prevent their Sack of Rome (410). He was certainly in no position to offer any relief to anyone. As for Constantine III, he was not equal to the intrigues of imperial Rome and by 411 his cause was spent. His son was killed along with those major supporters who had not turned against him, and he himself was assassinated.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: There are various interpretations that characterise the events in a way that supports a particular thesis without taking issue with the basic chronology.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: The historian Theodor Mommsen ("Britain", 1885) said that "It was not Britain that gave up Rome, but Rome that gave up Britain ...", arguing that Roman needs and priorities lay elsewhere.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: Michael Jones ("The End of Roman Britain", 1998) took the opposite view, saying that it was Britain that left Rome, arguing that numerous usurpers based in Britain combined with poor administration caused the Romano-Britons to revolt. Certain scholars such as J. B. Bury ("The Notitia Dignitatum" 1920) and German historian Ralf Scharf, disagreed entirely with the standard chronology. They argued that the evidence in fact supports later Roman involvement in Britain, post 410.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: Regarding the events of 409 and 410 when the Romano-Britons expelled Roman officials and sent a request for aid to Honorius, Michael Jones ("The End of Roman Britain", 1998) offered a different chronology to the same end result: he suggested that the Britons first appealed to Rome and when no help was forthcoming, they expelled the Roman officials and took charge of their own affairs.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: One theory that occurs in some modern histories concerns the "Rescript of Honorius", holding that it refers to the cities of the Bruttii (who lived at the "toe" of Italy in modern Calabria), rather than to the cities of the Britons. The suggestion is based on the assumption that the source (Zosimus) or a copyist made an error and actually meant "Brettia" when "Brettania" was written, and noting that the passage that contains the "Rescript" is otherwise concerned with events in northern Italy.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: Criticisms of the suggestion range from treating the passage in the way it was written by Zosimus and ignoring the suggestion, to simply noting its speculative nature, to a discussion of problems with the suggestion (e.g., 'why would Honorius write to the cities of the Bruttii rather than to his own provincial governor for that region?', and 'why does far-off southern Italy belong in a passage about northern Italy any more than far-off Britain?'). The theory also contradicts the account of Gildas, who provides independent support that the reference is to Britain by repeating the essence of Zosimus's account and clearly applying it to Britain.


title: End of Roman rule in Britain

text: E. A. Thompson ("Britain, A.D. 406–410", in "Britannia", 8 (1977), pp. 303–318) offered a more provocative theory to explain the expulsion of officials and appeal for Roman aid. He suggested that a revolt consisting of dissident peasants, not unlike the Bagaudae of Gaul, also existing in Britain, and when they revolted and expelled the Roman officials, the landowning class then made an appeal for Roman aid. There is no direct textual statement of this, though it might be plausible if the definition of 'bagaudae' is changed to fit the circumstances. There is no need to do so, as any number of rational scenarios already fit the circumstances. There is the possibility that some form of bagaudae existed in Britain, but were not necessarily relevant to the events of 409 and 410. The alleged ubiquity of Pelagianism amongst the British population may have contributed to such a movement if it had existed, not to mention large-scale purges amongst the British elite over previous decades. Among the works that mention but skirt the issue is Koch's "Celtic Culture" (2005), which cites Thompson's translation of Zosimus and goes on to say "The revolt in Britain may have involved bacaudae or peasant rebels as was the case in Armorica, but this is not certain."


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Republican incumbent president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot in 1992. Four years later, in 1996, he defeated Perot again (then as the nominee of the Reform Party) and Republican nominee Bob Dole, to win re-election; in neither ballot did he obtain a majority of the popular vote. Clinton was succeeded by Republican George W. Bush, who won the 2000 presidential election.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The nation experienced an extended period of economic prosperity during the Clinton presidency. While the economy remained strong, his presidency oscillated dramatically from high to low and back again, which historian Gil Troy characterized in six Acts. Act I in early 1993 was "Bush League" with amateurish distractions. By mid-1993 Clinton had recovered to Act II, passing a balanced budget and the NAFTA trade deal. Act III, 1994, saw the Republicans mobilizing under Newt Gingrich, defeating his healthcare reforms, and taking control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. 1995 to 1997 saw the comeback in Act IV, with a triumphant reelection landslide. However, Act V, the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment made 1998 a lost year. Clinton concluded happily with Act VI by deregulating the banking system in 1999.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Months into his first term, he signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which raised taxes and set the stage for future budget surpluses. He signed the bipartisan Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and won ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite opposition from trade unions and environmentalists. Clinton's most ambitious legislative initiative, a plan to provide universal health care, faltered—it never had majority support in Congress. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Revolution swept the country. Clinton vetoed many of the Republican policies such as abortion restrictions. He assembled a bipartisan coalition to pass welfare reform and expand health insurance for children.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In foreign policy, Clinton launched a major bombing campaign in the Balkans, which led to the creation of a United Nations protectorate in Kosovo. He played a major role of the expansion of NATO into former Eastern Bloc countries but remained on good terms with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. During his second term, Clinton presided over the deregulation of the financial and telecommunications industry. Clinton's second term saw the first federal budget surpluses since the 1960s, but was partially overshadowed by his impeachment in 1998. His impeachment arose after he denied having an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky under oath and telling Lewinsky to do the same. Though the House of Representatives voted to impeach Clinton, he was acquitted of all charges by the Senate. He appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton left office with high approval ratings, though his preferred successor, Vice President Al Gore, was narrowly defeated in the Electoral College by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election. Historians and political scientists have tended to rank Clinton as an above-average president.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: President George H. W. Bush's popularity in the aftermath of the successful 1991 Gulf War convinced many prominent Democrats to sit out the 1992 presidential election. With party leaders like Mario Cuomo and Dick Gephardt staying out of the running, the 1992 Democratic primary field consisted of relatively unknown candidates. Among those who sought the Democratic nomination were former Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, former Governor Jerry Brown of California, and Bill Clinton, who had served as the Governor of Arkansas since 1983. Clinton emerged as the front-runner for the nomination after the first set of primaries in February 1992. A founding member of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Clinton overcame opposition from more liberal Democrats like Brown and clinched the Democratic nomination in April 1992.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Bush defeated a challenge from conservative commentator Pat Buchanan to win his party's nomination. Meanwhile, independent candidate Ross Perot, a billionaire businessman from Texas, emerged as a major factor in the race. Perot ran a populist campaign that focused on voters disillusioned with both parties, and he emphasized his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and his desire to balance the federal budget. Polls taken in early June 1992 showed Bush leading the race, followed by Perot and then Clinton. From July to September, Perot temporarily dropped out of the race, causing severe damage to his candidacy. At the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Clinton selected Senator Al Gore of Tennessee as his running mate, and the successful convention helped unify Democrats behind Clinton. While the 1992 Republican National Convention placed a heavy emphasis on social issues, Clinton's campaign focused on the state of the economy, which was still emerging from the early 1990s recession.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: On election day, Clinton won 43% of the popular vote and a wide majority in the Electoral College. Bush won 37.4% of the popular vote, while Perot took 18.9%, the strongest showing by a third party or independent presidential candidate since the 1912 election. Later studies showed that Perot drew his voters roughly equally from Clinton and Bush. Clinton's victory included a sweep of the Northeastern United States, and he also won several states in the Midwest, the West, and the South. By far voters' disappointment with the economy was the major favor in voting against the incumbent, with abortion a lesser factor. In the concurrent congressional elections, Democrats retained control of both houses of Congress.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton used his inaugural address to deal with his uncertain mandate from the voters and lack of national experience. He drew heavily upon his lifelong study of the Protestant Bible, his education at Catholic Georgetown University, and the inaugural addresses of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Woodrow Wilson.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Mack McLarty, a long-time friend of Clinton who had led a successful business career and had served as the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, became Clinton's first chief of staff. Clinton convinced Lloyd Bentsen, a longtime Senator from Texas and the 1988 Democratic vice presidential nominee, to serve as his first Secretary of the Treasury. At the start of Clinton's first term, Bentsen, OMB Director Leon Panetta, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and policy coordinator Robert Rubin were Clinton's top economic advisers. Clinton's first term foreign policy team was led by National Security Advisor Anthony Lake and Secretary of State Warren Christopher, both of whom had served in the Carter administration. Vice President Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton emerged as two of the most influential figures of the Clinton administration, and Clinton solicited their opinions on a wide range of issues.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton decided to appoint the first female Attorney General, settling on little-known corporate lawyer Zoë Baird. In what became known as the Nannygate matter, the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that Baird had hired a Peruvian couple, both undocumented immigrants, to work in her home. Baird withdrew her nomination and Clinton next chose Kimba Wood, who was quickly forced to withdraw due to somewhat similar problems. Janet Reno, a Florida state's attorney, was nominated for Attorney General a few weeks later, and she won confirmation in March 1993. After experiencing difficulty with these nominations, as well as that of Lani Guinier, Clinton brought in David Gergen, who had previously served in Republican administrations, to serve as Counselor to the President. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin resigned in the aftermath of the Battle of Mogadishu and was succeeded by William Perry. Bentsen and McLarty also left office in 1994, and they were replaced by Rubin and Panetta, respectively.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: After Clinton's re-election, Panetta stepped down and was replaced by former deputy chief of staff Erskine Bowles. Madeleine Albright became the first female Secretary of State, Sandy Berger succeeded Lake as National Security Adviser, and former Republican Senator William Cohen became the Secretary of Defense. According to reporter John Harris,


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Berger's close rapport with Clinton made him the leading foreign policy figure of Clinton's second term, as well as the most influential National Security Advisor since Henry Kissinger. John Podesta assumed the position of Chief of Staff in 1998, while Lawrence Summers replaced Rubin as Treasury Secretary in 1999.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court. The first vacancy arose in March 1993, when Associate Justice Byron White informed Clinton of his impending retirement. Clinton considered various nominating political leaders like Mario Cuomo and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, whom he believed could become leaders on the court in a similar fashion to Earl Warren. After weeks of consideration, Clinton began to favor appointing an experienced jurist, and he conducted interviews with Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both of whom served as federal appellate judges. Clinton announced Ginsburg's nomination in June 1993 and she was confirmed by the Senate two months later, making her the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court alongside Sandra Day O'Connor. Harry Blackmun retired in 1994, and Clinton successfully nominated Breyer to succeed Blackmun. The appointments did not greatly affect the ideological balance of the Rehnquist Court, as conservatives continued to hold a narrow majority on the Supreme Court.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton also appointed 66 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals and 305 judges to the United States district courts. Among Clinton's appellate appointees were future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, as well as Merrick Garland, who was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016, though his nomination was never acted on by the Senate. Garland would later go on to become Attorney General under Joe Biden in 2021.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton proposed a $16 billion stimulus package primarily to aid inner-city programs desired by liberals, but it was defeated by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton inherited major budget deficits left over from the Reagan and Bush administrations; fiscal year 1992 had seen a $290 billion deficit. In order to cut the deficit, Bentsen, Panetta, and Rubin urged Clinton to pursue both tax increases and spending cuts. They argued that by taming the deficit, Clinton would encourage Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to lower interest rates, which, along with increased confidence among investors, would lead to an economic boom. Some of Clinton's advisers also believed that a focus on cutting the deficit would be politically beneficial since it would potentially help Democrats shed their supposed "tax and spend" reputation. Though Secretary of Labor Robert Reich argued that stagnant earnings represented a bigger economic issue than the deficits, Clinton decided to pursue deficit reduction as the major economic priority of his first year in office. In doing so, he reluctantly abandoned a middle-class tax cut that he had championed during the campaign.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton presented his budget plan to Congress in February 1993, proposing a mix of tax increases and spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half by 1997. Republican leaders strongly opposed any tax increase, and they pressured congressional Republicans to unite in opposition to Clinton's budget, and not a single Republican would vote in favor of Clinton's proposed bill. Senate Democrats eliminated the implementation of a new energy tax in favor of an increase in the gasoline tax, but Clinton successfully resisted efforts to defeat his proposed expansion of the earned income tax credit. By narrow margins, the Senate and the House of Representatives both passed versions of Clinton's budget bill, and a conference committee settled the differences between the House and Senate. The House passed the final bill in a 218–216 vote. After intensely lobbying Bob Kerrey and other Democratic senators, Clinton won passage of his bill in the Senate in 50–50 tie vote; Vice President Gore broke the tie. Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA–93) into law on August 10, 1993. The bill provided for $255 billion in spending cuts over a five-year period, with much of those cuts affecting Medicare and the military. It also provided for $241 billion in new revenue over five years; most of that revenue came from an increased gasoline tax or from higher taxes on those who made over $100,000 per year.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: After Republicans took control of Congress in the 1994 elections, incoming Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich promised a conservative "revolution" that would implement tax cuts, welfare reform, and major domestic spending cuts. Gingrich failed to deliver major conservative reforms in the first hundred days of the 104th Congress, but many observers continued to wonder if the Speaker would seize stewardship over domestic policy from the office of the president. Meanwhile, with conservatism on the rise and New Deal liberalism in retreat, Clinton hoped to forge a new consensus that did not totally reject government interventionism. In reaction to his party's electoral defeat, Clinton hired consultant Dick Morris, who advocated that Clinton pursue a policy of triangulation between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats. By co-opting some of Republican ideas, Morris argued that Clinton could boost his own popularity while blocking the possibility of the drastic reforms advocated by some conservatives.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The Republican Congress presented Clinton with a budget plan that cut Medicare spending and instituted major tax cuts for the wealthy, giving him a November 14, 1995 deadline to approve the bill. After the deadline, the government would be forced to temporarily shut down due to a lack of funding. In reaction, Clinton presented his own plan that did not include spending cuts to Medicare but would balance the budget by 2005. As Clinton refused to sign the Republican bill, major portions of the government suspended operations until Congress enacted a stopgap measure. The government shut down again on December 16 after Clinton vetoed a Republican budget proposal that would have extended tax cuts to the wealthy, cut spending on social programs, and shifted control of Medicaid to the states. After a 21-day government shutdown, Republicans, in danger of being seen as extremists by many in the public, accepted Clinton's budget.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton secured passage of the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, becoming the first president to obtain that power although many had sought it. Its effect was very brief as the act was soon ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in "Clinton v. City of New York".


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Combined with a strong economy, the 1993 deficit reduction plan produced smaller budget deficits each year. With the improving state of the federal budget, Clinton and congressional Republicans reached a budget agreement in 1997 that provided for relatively small changes to the budget. In 1998, the federal government experienced the first budget surplus since the 1960s. Reflecting the importance of the budget surplus, the "New York Times" described the end of budget deficits as "the fiscal equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall." Though Republican leaders called for large tax cuts in light of the budgetary surplus, Clinton successfully resisted any major budgetary changes in the last three years of his term. In 1997, Clinton agreed to a deal with Republicans that lowered the tax rate on capital gains to 18 percent, implemented a $500 child tax credit, increased funding for children's health care, and raised the federal cigarette tax from 24 cents per pack to 39 cents per pack. Republicans did, however, block some of Clinton's favored policies, including an increase of the federal minimum wage and legislation designed to provide free prescription drugs to seniors.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: When Clinton took office, approximately twenty percent of American adults lacked health insurance, despite the fact that the United States spent more on health care than other developed countries. Many liberals advocated the establishment of a single-payer healthcare system similar to that of Canada, while a group of congressional Republicans developed a plan consisting of government subsidies and the implementation of a mandate that would require individuals to purchase health insurance. The administration formed a task force, led by First Lady Hillary Clinton, that was charged with creating a plan that would provide for universal health care. Assigning a major policy role to the First Lady was unprecedented and sparked controversy. Rejecting calls for a single-payer system, she proposed a health care plan based on the extension of employer-based health insurance. Individuals not insured by employers would be insured by the government. The plan would also expand the government's regulatory role in a concept known as "managed competition," with the government setting a minimum level of benefits that each plan could provide. Additionally, the plan would prevent insurers from charging different rates to customers based on age and pre-existing conditions.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: After winning the passage of OBRA–93 and the ratification of NAFTA in 1993, the President made health care his major area of legislative focus in 1994. Though many corporations supported Clinton's health care proposal in hopes of reducing their own costs, several other groups strongly objected to the plan. Liberals criticized Clinton for not proposing more far-reaching reforms, while conservatives attacked the expansion of government. Interest groups ran ad campaigns alleging that the Clinton health care bill would lead to health care rationing, reduced choices, and increased costs. The Health Insurance Association of America's "Harry and Louise" ad campaign proved especially important in influencing the public against the Clinton health care bill. Meanwhile, Congressmen Newt Gingrich and columnist Bill Kristol convinced congressional Republicans to resist any form of compromise. Clinton's decision not to engage congressional Democrats and moderate Republicans early in 1993, and his own refusal to compromise on various aspects of the bill, further damaged any hope of passing a major health care bill. With Republicans unified against his plan, and with his own party divided, Clinton decided to abandon health care reform in September 1994.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Within a month of taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The act, which had been vetoed twice by Bush, guaranteed workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave for certain medical and family reasons, including pregnancy.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In August 1996, Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The bipartisan bill granted people the right to keep their insurance plan if they changed jobs, and also contained several other health care reforms. In October 1996, Senator Ted Kennedy introduced a bill to provide health care coverage for children of the working poor, to be financed via a 75 cents a pack cigarette tax increase. Working with Clinton and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, Kennedy won passage of the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The successful passage of welfare reform in the 1990s was President Clinton's strategy of "triangulation"-purposely positioning himself midway between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, thereby building a majority coalition and enabling him to take full credit for the results. The strategy was called "triangulation."


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Shortly after the end of the government shutdown, Clinton announced his plan to pursue major changes to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which provided financial assistance to low-income families with children. Clinton believed that the program inadvertently trapped many poor families and individuals in a cycle of poverty, and he favored shifting funding from AFDC to job training and child care programs. Republicans shared Clinton's goal of making major changes to the welfare system, but they were unwilling to fund the job training programs and wanted to prevent legal immigrants from receiving welfare benefits. Clinton twice vetoed Republican plans that terminated AFDC, but he ultimately decided that he favored the Republican reform plan over no reform at all. In July 1996, Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which terminated AFDC. In its place, the bill created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which imposed new work requirements for and lifetime limits on aid recipients, and shifted responsibility for the administration of the programs to the states. Due in part to the improving economy and the expansion of the earned income tax credit, the number of Americans receiving cash public assistance declined from 12.2 million in 1996 to 5.3 million in 2001.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Commentators have sometimes speculated that Clinton's emphasis on entrepreneurship and the post-industrial sector was the co-option of conservative ideas first presented by Reagan Republicans in the 1980s. However Brent Cebul argues that triangulation represented a traditional liberal effort to structure the economy with the goals of creating new jobs, and producing fresh tax revenues that can support progressive policy innovations. This tradition goes back to the local and state policies inspired by the New Deal, and the "supply-side liberalism" of the 1970s.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton presided over a "Goldilocks economy," a period of low inflation and low unemployment. During the 1990s, the Dow Jones Industrial Average quadrupled, and the share of families with investments in stocks rose from 32 percent in 1989 to 51 percent in 2001. Income inequality also grew, as the richest households earned a higher proportion of the total income. Nonetheless, median household income, adjusted for inflation to 2000 dollars, grew from $38,262 in 1995 to $42,151 in 2000. By 2000, the unemployment rate had declined to four percent, while the poverty rate had declined to 11.3 percent.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton proposed a $30 billion economic stimulus package in his first year in office, but his proposal was blocked by Senate Republicans, and he would be unable to win the passage of any similar proposal for the remainder of his presidency. Clinton held office at a time when monetarism had supplanted Keynesianism as the dominant theory of economic growth among many in Washington. Under the theory of monetarism, Clinton's fiscal policies would have relatively little impact on the economy. Instead, monetarists contended that the economy was guided by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, a group of appointed officials who set monetary policy. Throughout Clinton's presidency, Alan Greenspan served as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and he emerged as an especially prominent public figure as the economy improved in mid-to-late 1990s. Though much of the credit for the strong economy was assigned to Greenspan, the Clinton administration also basked in the approval of Americans who enjoyed the benefits of a strong economy, and good economic conditions helped Clinton remain popular despite controversies over his personal life.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton presided over a period of deregulation in the telecommunications and financial industries. In 1999, Clinton signed into law the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA). The act repealed a provision of the New Deal's Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 that had required banks to either classify themselves as either commercial bank, which were subject to federal oversight and protections like deposit insurance, or as investment banks, which faced less regulations but did not benefit from federal protections. The financial services industry had attempted to repeal this provision of the GLBA since the 1980s, and they were finally successful due to cooperation from Secretary of the Treasury Rubin and Clintonians, who believed that the financial industry needed looser regulation in order for it to remain competitive globally. The bill passed both houses of Congress with only minimal resistance. Opposition to the plan came primarily from liberals like Senator Paul Wellstone, who feared that looser banking regulations would lead to financial crises.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Shortly before leaving office, Clinton signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which deregulated trading of derivatives. The bill also included the "Enron loophole," which lessened regulation of energy trading by companies such as Enron. Clinton also signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which represented the first major overhaul of the Communications Act of 1934.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton supported the right of homosexual individuals to serve in the military, and, along with Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, he developed a plan that would allow openly gay individuals to serve in the military. Clinton's proposal received strong pushback from military leaders, especially Marine Commandant Carl Epting Mundy Jr. In response, General Colin Powell suggested a compromise solution in which the military would not ask recruits about their sexual orientation, but would retain the right to discharge those who were gay. Clinton resisted the compromise policy, which became known as "don't ask, don't tell," but congressional leaders of both parties made it clear that they would reverse any executive order allowing gay individuals to openly serve in the military. Clinton ultimately accepted the don't ask, don't tell policy, and over the ensuing ten years approximately 10,000 people were discharged from the military after they revealed their homosexuality. In September 1996, Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages, though it had passed with a veto-proof majority and he called the law unnecessary and divisive.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: On taking office, Clinton revoked a gag order that had prevented abortion counseling in federally funded clinics. He also signed an executive order allowing the use of fetal tissue in medical research. These early policies moves signaled Clinton's break with the socially conservative policies of his predecessors. Clinton also signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which made it a federal crime to obstruct abortion clinics and places of worship. In April 1996, Clinton vetoed a bill to prohibit late or partial birth abortion calling the procedure potentially life-saving and arguing that the small group of women likely to be affected should not become pawns. Catholic bishops condemned his move. Clinton vetoed another such law in 1997. Republicans later passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush in 2003.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In November 1993, Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which required a background check for gun purchasers. In 1994, Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which included a provision known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act provided funding for 100,000 local law enforcement officials, and established a federal three-strikes law that enhanced criminal penalties for repeat offenders. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban barred the sale of several kinds of Semi-automatic rifles, but the provision did not apply to the 1.5 million semi-automatic rifles already in the possession of private owners, nor did it affect other types of guns.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Liberal Democrats gave environmentalism a higher priority than the economy-focused Clinton did. The Clinton administration responded to public demand for environmental protection. Clinton created 17 national monuments by executive order, prohibiting commercial activities such as logging, mining, and drilling for oil or gas. Clinton also imposed a permanent freeze on drilling in maritime sanctuaries. Other presidential and departmental orders protected various wetlands and coastal resources and extended the existing moratorium on new oil leases off the coast line through 2013. After the Republican victory in the 1994 elections, Clinton vetoed a series of budget bills that contained amendments designed to scale back environmental restrictions. Clinton boasted that his administration "adopted the strongest air-quality protections ever, improved the safety of our drinking water and food, cleaned up about three times as many toxic waste sites as the two previous administrations combined, [and] helped to promote a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles and vehicles that run on alternative fuels".


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Vice President Gore was keenly concerned with global climate change, and Clinton created the President's Council on Sustainable Development. In November 1998, Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement in which developed countries committed to reducing carbon emissions. However, the Senate refused to ratify it since the agreement did not apply to the rapidly growing emissions of developing countries, such as China, India, and Indonesia.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The key person on environmental issues was Bruce Babbitt, the former head of the League of Conservation Voters, who served for all eight years as Clinton's Secretary of the Interior. According to John D. Leshy:


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The Interior Department worked to protect scenic and historic areas of America's federal public lands. In 2000 Babbitt created the National Landscape Conservation System, a collection of 15 U.S. National Monuments and 14 National Conservation Areas to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management in such a way as to keep them "healthy, open, and wild."


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: A major issue involved low fees charged ranchers who grazed cattle on public lands. The "animal unit month" (AUM) fee was only $1.35 and was far below the 1983 market value. The argument was that the federal government in effect was subsidizing ranchers, with a few major corporations controlling millions of acres of grazing land. Babbitt and Oklahoma Congressman Mike Synar tried to rally environmentalists and raise fees, but senators from the Western United States successfully blocked their proposals.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Although Governor Clinton had a large farm base in Arkansas; as president he sharply cut support for farmers and raised taxes on tobacco. At one high level policy meeting budget expert Alice Rivlin told the president she had a new slogan for his reelection campaign: "I’m going to end welfare as we know it for farmers.” Clinton was annoyed and retorted, “Farmers are good people. I know we have to do these things. We’re going to make these cuts. But we don’t have to feel good about it.”


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: With exports accounting for more than a fourth of farm output, farm organizations joined business interests to defeat human rights activists regarding Most Favored Nation (MFN) trade status for China. They took the position that major tariff increases would hurt importers and consumers. They warned that China would retaliate to hurt American exporters. They wanted more liberal trade policies and less attention to Chinese human rights abuses.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Environmentalists began taking a keen interest in agricultural policies. The feared that farming had a growing negative impact on the environment in terms of soil erosion and the destruction of wetlands. The expanding use of pesticides and fertilizers polluted soil and water not just on each farm but downstream into rivers and lakes and urban areas as well.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, enacted by Clinton on October 21, 1998, served as the first significant amendment to the Copyright Act since 1976. The DMCA provided a framework for sound recording copyright owners and recording artists to seek public performance royalties under statute, which proved to be a landmark achievement for the recording industry. The law included a provision reiterating the "fair use" of copyrighted materials, and another provision that exempted internet service providers from responsibility for inadvertently transmitting copyrighted works. That same month, Clinton also signed the Copyright Term Extension Act, which retroactively extended copyright protection and stopped copyrighted works entering into the public domain for an extra twenty years.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Responding to declining home-ownership rates for low-income families, Clinton sought to reform the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to encourage banks to make loans to inhabitants of low-income areas. The administration implemented new rules that would prevent banks from expanding if they failed to meet benchmarks for loans to low-income areas. Between 1993 and 1998, CRA lending increased at a faster rate than other loans, and home values in many CRA areas rose. Banks implemented new strategies designed to cater to lower-income borrowers, including the adjustable-rate mortgage. This effort was part of a broader initiative, the National Homeownership Strategy, which helped increase the share of Americans who owned their own homes from 64 percent to 67.4 percent during Clinton's presidency. Many of the sub-prime mortgages that allowed Americans to purchase homes would later play a role in sparking the Financial crisis of 2007–2008.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: "Pardongate" was the Bill Clinton pardon controversy when critics attacked his manner of giving out 450 pardons, a third of them on his last day in office. Scholars use two different models to describe the pardons process. Clinton used the presidential model, viewing the pardon power as a convenient resource to be used to help party activists or to advance specific policy goals. Critics favored the agency model, which views the pardons process as a nonpolitical matter for legal experts in the Department of Justice. An investigation found that he was legally within his rights.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Critics agree that foreign policy was not a high priority for Clinton and his administration. According to Harvard Professor Stephen Walt:


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: and readied itself for a possible competition with a rising China while encouraging Beijing to accept a status quo that favored the United States...It forced its allies to bear a greater share of the burden in Europe and East Asia while insisting on leading both alliances. And together with its NATO allies, it asserted the right to intervene in the sovereign territory of other states, even without Security Council authorization. Clinton may cloak U.S. policy in the rhetoric of "world order" and general global interests, but its defining essence remains the unilateral exercise of sovereign power.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: With the end of the Cold War, trade became an increasingly prominent issue in international politics, as countries sought reduced tariffs and other trade agreements. Clinton believed that globalization would promote economic prosperity and democratization throughout the world, and he pursued several major trade agreements. President Bush had signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico in the final year of his term, but the agreement had not yet been ratified when Clinton took office. Opposition to NAFTA crossed party lines, as organized labor allies like Democratic Congressman Dick Gephardt and conservative isolationists like Pat Buchanan both opposed ratification. With the fate of NAFTA still uncertain in the House of Representatives, Vice President Gore met Ross Perot in a televised debate. Gore's strong performance in the debate, as well as the Clinton administration's effective lobbying campaign, helped NAFTA win ratification in November 1993.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The administration negotiated approximately 300 trade agreements with other countries. By granting China temporary most favoured nation status in 1993, his administration minimized tariff levels in Chinese imports. In 2000, Clinton signed a bill granting permanent normal trade relations to China, and American imports from China massively increased in the subsequent years.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In 1992, before his presidency, Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland, but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the British government. In November 1995, in a ceasefire during the Troubles, Clinton became the first president to visit Northern Ireland, examining both of the two divided communities of Belfast. Despite unionist criticism, Clinton used this as a way to negotiate an end to the violent conflict with London, Dublin, the paramilitaries and the other groups. Clinton went on to play a key role in the peace talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Unrest in Somalia had escalated into a full-scale civil war in 1991. President Bush had dispatched 25,000 soldiers to the country to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission. By the late 1993, Somalia remained in a state of civil war, and 4,000 American soldiers still served in the UN peacekeeping mission. In October 1993, U.S. special forces launched a raid on Mogadishu with the intention of capturing warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who had led attacks against U.N. forces. The raid ended in failure and in the deaths of eighteen Americans. The humiliating incident led Americans to questioned the presence of U.S. soldiers in Somalia. After Somali leaders signed a peace agreement in early 1994, Clinton removed U.S. forces from the country.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The experience in Somalia exacerbated internal debates around the role of American military power in the Post–Cold War era. In a victory for those who favored non-intervention, Clinton placed new limits on the deployment of his troops, especially as part of U.N. peacekeeping missions. In April 1994, the Hutu of Rwanda engaged in a genocide against the minority Tutsi, killing 800,000 people in a three-month span. The UN sent a small force to provide aid, but the U.S., with no strategic or economic interest in the country, did not intervene. Clinton would later describe the non-intervention in Rwanda as the worst mistake of his administration.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: A military junta in Haiti had ousted the country's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in 1991. Clinton was inclined to restore Aristide, in part due to stem the flow of Haitians fleeing to the U.S. However many Americans opposed a military intervention in a nation which posed no threat to the United States. Despite congressional and public opposition, Clinton announced in September 1994 that he would remove the junta if it did not voluntarily relinquish power. At the same time, he sent a peace mission consisting of Powell, former President Jimmy Carter, and Senator Sam Nunn to convince the military government to step aside. As U.S. soldiers prepared to launch a strike against Haiti, the military government agreed to restore Aristide and no combat took place.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: During the closing stages of the Cold War, Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milošević took power as the leader of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. His nationalist policies alienated leaders of the other constituent countries of Yugoslavia, a multi-ethnic state that had been established in 1918. Slovenia, Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia each declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, but Serbian forces forcefully opposed Croatia's independence, beginning the Yugoslav Wars. In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina also declared independence. As in Croatia, a significant minority of Serbs opposed to independence lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Bosnian War began between proponents and opponents of independence. Ethnic cleansing campaigns


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: conducted by Bosnian Serbs provoked world condemnation, and the issue of whether to intervene in the Balkan Wars posed one of the greatest foreign policy questions as Clinton took office. Activists such Elie Wiesel pressured Clinton to help put an end to the ethnic cleansing, and Clinton himself wanted to do something to end the violence. General Colin Powell initially convinced Clinton to abstain from a military intervention, arguing that the United States should not become involved in a region in which it lacked clear strategic interests.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In May 1994, after Serb forces invaded safe zones established by the United Nations Protection Force, Clinton authorized air strikes against Serb positions. The air strikes did not end Serb advances, and in July 1995 over 8,000 Bosniaks were killed in the Srebrenica massacre. Clinton and National Security Adviser Anthony Lake formulated a plan to end the genocide in Bosnia, with the key part of the plan being a major NATO air campaign against the Bosnian Serbs. After Clinton won the support of European leaders for the campaign, NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force. In reaction to bombing campaign and the advance of Bosniak forces, Milošević agreed to begin peace talks. Clinton sponsored the talks in Dayton Ohio, putting Richard Holbrooke in charge. The subsequent Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian War and divided Bosnia into two autonomous regions.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In 1998, the Kosovo War broke out in Kosovo, an autonomous province of Serbia. A group of ethnic Albanians known as the Kosovo Liberation Army sought independence, launching attacks against Serb forces. In putting down the attacks, Serb forces engaged in an ethnic cleaning campaign against the Albanian population. Though NATO leaders were reluctant to become involved, and Russia threatened to veto any U.N. resolution allowing for military action, many of Clinton's advisers called for another intervention in the Balkans. Hoping to again force Milošević into peace talks, Clinton ordered a bombing campaign against Serb forces in March 1999. As Milošević refused to capitulate, NATO escalated the bombing campaign, resulting in the devastation of the Serbian capital of Belgrade. As domestic opposition to his leadership grew, Milošević agreed to withdraw troops and allow NATO-led peacekeeping force to be stationed in Kosovo. Kosovo's status would be disputed in subsequent years, while Milošević was overthrown in October 2000.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: One of Clinton's major priorities was the expansion of NATO into former Eastern Bloc countries in Eastern Europe, as Clinton believed that NATO would provide a stabilizing influence on these countries. Russian leaders felt threatened as NATO approached its border. Clinton cultivated a close relationship with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and in 1997, Clinton won Yeltsin's reluctant assent to the expansion of NATO, clearing the way for the accession of Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Yeltsin pressed for a commitment not to expand NATO into the Baltic states, but Clinton was not willing to bind his successors to such a promise. The French pushed for the addition of Romania and Slovenia to NATO, but Clinton opposed this move, as he believed that too quick of an expansion into Eastern Europe would dilute the strength of NATO.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton tried to help Yeltsin avoid an economic depression, reform the Russian economy, and prevent a resurgence of Communism. Clinton quietly helped Yeltsin win reelection in 1996, and played a major role in Russia's entrance into the Group of Eight (G8), a conference of the countries with the largest economies.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Terrorism emerged as an increasingly important national security issue during Clinton's administration. In the closing years of the Soviet–Afghan War, Osama bin Laden had organized al-Qaeda, a militant Sunni organization. The al-Qaeda leaders despised Western values, and were particularly incensed by the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda grew during the 1990s and engaged in terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere. The group claimed responsibility for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and the bombing of a U.S. ship at port in Yemen. In retaliation, Clinton ordered the bombing of al-Qaeda facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan. The Central Intelligence Agency and the military tracked bin Laden's movements in an attempt to capture or kill him, but Bin Laden evaded capture deep within the mountains of Afghanistan.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In 1994, North Korea blocked international inspectors from verifying the regime's adherence to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The administration believed that the North Koreans were processing plutonium from a reactor to build two atomic bombs.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: President Clinton recalled that "I was determined to prevent North Korea from developing a nuclear arsenal, even at the risk of war". Declassified Clinton-era documents illustrate that the administration had planned for a possible war during the 1994 nuclear crisis.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The Pentagon had hypothetical plans to strike the North Korea nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, but the order was never given.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton sought to mediate the Arab–Israeli conflict, encouraging the leaders of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to reach the 1993 Oslo Accords. A subsequent agreement created the Palestinian National Authority, which was given control over the Gaza strip, a territory that Israel had taken control of in the 1967 Six-Day War. During his second terms, Clinton sought to revive the dormant peace process, specifically by convincing Israel to turn over control of the West Bank, another territory captured in the Six-Day War. Clinton hosted the 2000 Camp David Summit between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement. In September 2000, the Palestinians launched an uprising known as the Second Intifada, which would continue after the end of Clinton's presidency.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton maintained the economic sanctions and the no-fly zones imposed on Iraq in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. In retaliation for Iraq's attempted assassination of former President Bush, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. After Hussein repeatedly obstructed the UN commission charged with monitoring Iraq's WMD program, the U.S. and Britain engaged in a bombing campaign against Iraqi weapon facilities. These raids would continue intermittently until the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In January 1995, Clinton's economic advisers informed him that the Mexican government would default on its loans unless the U.S. offered a $25 billion loan package. Though Clinton and Speaker of the House Gingrich both believed that preventing the Mexican economy from collapsing was important to U.S. interests, Congress refused to authorize an aid package. The Clinton administration also helped limit the effects of the 1997 Asian financial crisis by keeping U.S. markets open.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Despite opposition from conservatives and veterans of the Vietnam War, Clinton normalized relations with Vietnam in 1995. That same year, he became the first U.S. president to visit Vietnam. Clinton was also the first president to visit Botswana, Slovenia, and South Africa.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In 1997, Tony Blair of the Labour Party won election as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Clinton and Blair shared a centrist approach to politics, and they jointly promoted their "Third Way" (between traditional left-wing and right-wing policies) on the international stage.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Prior to taking office, Bill and Hillary Clinton had invested in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a real estate development company owned by Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal that quickly went bankrupt. The McDougals were later charged with fraud due to their activities connected to a savings and loan association. The July 1993 death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster raised new allegations about the Clintons' connections to the savings and loan associations, marking the start of what became known as the Whitewater controversy. To defuse allegations stemming from Foster's death, Clinton authorized Attorney General Reno to appoint a special prosecutor under the terms of the Ethics in Government Act. Later, a special three-judge panel convened and appointed Ken Starr, a former U.S. solicitor general, as an independent counsel charged with investigating the Whitewater controversy. Starr's investigation expanded beyond Whitewater, in part because of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Clinton by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas employee.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In 1998, Starr's office learned that a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, had engaged in an affair with Clinton. In a deposition related to the Jones lawsuit, Clinton swore under oath that he had not engaged in sexual relations with Lewinsky. Clinton was able to squash rumors of the affair until July 1998, when Starr reached an immunity deal with Lewinsky and obtained her confession of the affair. Clinton publicly apologized for having an affair with Lewinsky in September 1998. Though Clinton argued that he had not lied under oath in his answers to the questions asked at the Jones deposition, the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment proceedings against Clinton. The controversy over Lewinsky enveloped Congress and the presidency, derailing the administration's hopes for reforming Medicare and Social Security. Individuals from both parties were outraged by Clinton's affair with an intern, but many Democrats were mollified by Clinton's repeated public apologies and viewed the reaction from the media and Republicans as disproportionate to the gravity of the affair.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The House passed two articles of impeachment against Clinton. In January 1999, the Senate began the second presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, after that of Andrew Johnson. Removal of the president would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Clinton was acquitted of the first article by a vote of 45 to convict to 55 to acquit, and acquitted of the second by a vote of 50-50. In 1999, Congress chose not to renew the independent counsel law that had allowed Starr's appointment, meaning that future investigations of a similar nature would be conducted under the oversight of the Justice Department rather than through a judicial panel. Clinton would later publicly acknowledge that he "knowingly gave evasive and misleading answers" in the Jones deposition.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: A series of controversies, including the debate over gays in the military, contentious confirmation battles, and "Travelgate," sank Clinton's approval ratings to just 37 percent in mid-1993. Further setbacks related to health care and foreign policy left Clinton in a weak position in the lead-up to the 1994 elections. Led by Newt Gingrich, House Republicans created the Contract with America, which promised an overhaul of the federal welfare system and passage of a balanced budget amendment, term limits, and deregulation. Republican won control of both chambers of Congress, picking up 54 seats in the House of Representatives and 9 Senate seats. As the victory gave Republicans unified control of Congress for the first time since 1955, some commentators referred to the 1994 elections as the "Republican Revolution."


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton's handling of the budget and the Bosnian War improved his approval ratings, and his own polling showed him consistently leading Republican challengers throughout 1996. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole defeated Pat Buchanan and publisher Steve Forbes in the 1996 Republican primaries, and Dole was formally nominated at the August 1996 Republican National Convention. At the convention, Dole selected conservative former Congressman Jack Kemp as his running mate and announced that he favored a 15% across-the-board income tax cut. Perot ran for president again, this time as a member of the Reform Party.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton made a four-day whistle-stop train tour in route to the Democratic convention in Chicago in August. The main theme was centrism. In his acceptance speech Clinton called on the American people to, "help build that bridge to the 21st century for all our children," and avoid Bob Dole's "bridge to the past." He promised more tax cuts and benefits "for the hard-working citizen who plays by the rules." Promising the best is yet to come, he reaffirmed his belief "in a place called Hope, a place called America."


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton continued to position himself as a centrist, stating in early 1996 that "the era of Big Government is over." Meanwhile, Dole, one of the oldest major party presidential nominees in history, proved to be an ineffective campaigner. Clinton won by landslides in the popular vote and the Electoral College. Dole performed poorly outside the Mountain states and the South. Clinton built his landslide on the votes of women, African-Americans, Hispanics, younger voters, and retired voters. Dole conceded defeat gracefully and with good humor after nearly a half-century in public office. Turnout was low, at 49%.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Despite Clinton's victory, Republican retained control of the House and the Senate in the 1996 congressional elections. With Republicans in control of Congress, Clinton refrained from proposing major domestic initiatives in his second term. He made a few changes to important positions including Erskine Bowles as his new Chief of Staff. Madeleine Albright became Secretary of State; William Cohen, a Republican, became Secretary of Defense; Anthony Lake became director of the CIA; and Sandy Berger became National Security Advisor.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: In the midst of the impeachment hearings, Clinton's approval ratings rose above 65 percent. Polls showed that many in the public did not condone Clinton's relations with Lewinsky, but they did not believe that it was grounds for removal from office. Defying predictions of congressional losses, the Democrats picked up five seats in the House of Representatives; neither party gained seats in the Senate. The election represented the first time since 1934 that the party holding the presidency picked up seats in a mid-term election. Gingrich resigned from office after the elections, and he was succeeded as Speaker of the House by Dennis Hastert.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The 2000 elections took place on November 7. Clinton was term-limited in 2000 due to the 22nd Amendment. Vice President Al Gore dispatched a challenge from Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey early in the 2000 Democratic primaries. Gore chose Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a prominent intra-party critic of Clinton and the affair with Lewinsky, as his running mate. Texas Governor George W. Bush, the son of former President Bush, won the Republican nomination after defeating Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2000 Republican primaries. For his running mate, Bush selected Dick Cheney, who had served as Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush. Pat Buchanan ran as the Reform Party nominee, and he called for a reduction in immigration. Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party candidate, winning support from many liberals who were disappointed by the centrist tendencies of Clinton and Gore.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Bush called for major tax cuts, a partial privatization of Social Security, and school vouchers. He also criticized Clinton for "nation building" in Haiti and other countries, and attacked Clinton's sexual indiscretions. Clinton and Gore had been close political partners for much of Clinton's presidency, but Gore kept his distance from Clinton during the presidential campaign. In the election, Gore won a narrow plurality of the popular vote, taking 48.4 percent to Bush's 47.9 percent and Nader's 2.7 percent. Gore won much of the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, while Bush dominated the South and the Interior West. However, the winner of the election was unclear on election night, as neither candidate had definitively secured a majority of the electoral vote.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: The outcome of the election hinged on Florida, which had endured an extremely close presidential election. Over the ensuing five weeks, both campaigns waged an intense legal battle over election law as Florida conducted a recount. The Supreme Court of Florida unanimously upheld the recount, but the Bush team appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. On December 12, in a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the recount, leaving Bush as the winner of Florida and the winner of the election. Bush became the fourth individual in U.S. history, and the first since 1888, to win the election despite losing the popular vote. Republicans also retained control of the House and the Senate, giving the party unified control of Congress and the presidency for the first time since the 1954 election. Despite the best looking and strong economy in years, Clinton's legacy was overshadowed by Gore's election loss in 2000, however Clinton still left office with 66% approval rating.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Polls of historians and political scientists have generally ranked Clinton as an above-average president. A 2017 C-SPAN poll of historians ranked Clinton as the 15th best president. A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section ranked Clinton as the 13th best president.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton's "third way" of moderate liberalism built up the nation's fiscal health, resisted Republican attacks, and put the nation on a firm footing abroad amid globalization and the development of anti-American terrorist organizations.


title: Presidency of Bill Clinton

text: Clinton managed to remake the image and operations of the Democratic Party in ways that effectively undermined the so-called Reagan Revolution. His "New Democrat" Party co-opted the Reagan appeal to law and order, individualism, and welfare reform, and made the party more attractive to white middle-class Americans. At the same time, the reborn party retained traditional Democratic commitments to providing for the disadvantaged, regulating the excesses of the private market place, supporting minorities and women, and using government to stimulate economic growth. Moreover, Clinton capitalized on growing dissatisfaction with far right-wing extremism within the Republican Party. Nevertheless, Clinton's claims to a lasting, positive legacy for the Democratic Party have been severely undermined by two realities: the shift in control of Congress to the Republican Party on his watch and the loss by his would-be successor, Vice President Al Gore, in the 2000 presidential election. Thus, Clinton's partisan legacy remains complex and uncertain.


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department and presiding member of the Board of Commissioners. The commissioner is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the mayor. The commissioner is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the department as well as the appointment of deputies including the Chief of Department and subordinate officers. Commissioners are civilian administrators, and they and their subordinate deputies are civilians under an oath of office, not sworn members of the force. This is a separate position from the Chief of Department, who is the senior sworn uniformed member of the force. The First Deputy Commissioner is the Commissioner and department's second-in-command. The office of the Police Commissioner is located at the NYPD Headquarters, One Police Plaza. Both the commissioner and first deputy commissioner outrank all uniformed officers, including the chief of department.


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: Theodore Roosevelt, in one of his final acts as Governor of New York before becoming Vice President of the United States in March 1901, continued reforms he began when he was police superintendent by signing legislation that replaced the police commission and office of the police chief (previously the superintendent) with a single police commissioner.


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: The current police commissioner is Keechant Sewell, who had previously been Chief of Detectives for the Nassau County Police Department. On December 14, 2021, the mayor-elect Eric Adams confirmed that he would appoint Sewell as the first female police commissioner of the NYPD. She took office on January 1, 2022.


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: Prior to 1901, the New York City Police Department was run by a board of four to six commissioners. The following is a list of some of the most famous members of the Police Commission:


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: Since 1901, a single commissioner has been in charge of the New York Police Department. The following is a list of the commissioners:


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: In the police procedural television show "Blue Bloods", the fictional New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan is played by Tom Selleck. His father, Henry Reagan, played by Len Cariou, is a former Commissioner.


title: New York City Police Commissioner

text: The public disclosure of salary as of 2020 is approximately $205,180.00 base, which is considered in line with what most large US cities pay their respective chief of police, and a bit lower than that of the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.


title: Hollywood Records

text: Hollywood Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label focuses in pop, rock, alternative, hip hop, and country genres, as well as specializing in mature recordings not suitable for the flagship Walt Disney Records label.


title: Hollywood Records

text: Founded on January 1, 1990, its current roster includes artists such as Jordan Fisher, Queen, Ocean Park Standoff, Dreamers, Bea Miller, Martina Stoessel, Breaking Benjamin, Jorge Blanco, Olivia Holt, Sofia Carson, New Hope Club, Joywave, ScaryPoolParty, Area21, CB30, Laine Hardy, and Temecula Road. The label also releases soundtrack albums and digital releases from Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, ABC, National Geographic, Hulu, 20th Television, FX, and ESPN since their acquisitions by The Walt Disney Company.


title: Hollywood Records

text: Hollywood Records was formed on January 1, 1990 by Michael Eisner, then CEO of The Walt Disney Company as a way of expanding the company's music operations by looking to develop and promote the careers of a wide variety of artists in various genres. At the time, the company was limited to the release of soundtracks from Touchstone, and Hollywood Pictures films. Lawyer Peter Paterno was the first president of the label, until his resignation in 1993 because of the division's lackluster sales. After failing to sign new artists such as Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Naughty by Nature, Cypress Hill and Dr. Dre, the label experienced its first major success in February 1990, when it acquired the North American distribution rights to Queen's entire catalog for $10 million. The following year, the first Queen album under Hollywood, "Innuendo", was released. The deal's outlook as an important economic opportunity was immediately affected by the death of the band's lead singer Freddie Mercury, although the band's catalog sales managed to successfully generate nearly $94 million in revenue for Disney from 1991 to 1995.


title: Hollywood Records

text: Bob Pfeifer was named president of the label in March 1995 after a whole year without a president, but problems continued to the label and Pfeifer was fired in 1997, after the label revealed that he had lost over 150 million dollars since 1990. In 1997, Disney acquired Mammoth Records, in order to get an already-established record label that could succeed. However, the acquisition of Mammoth was a failure and the label was closed and integrated to Hollywood in 2003. Additionally, during this time, they had signed Duran Duran to a three-album contract, and subsequently released "Pop Trash," only to terminate their contract after disappointing album sales. In 1998, the company decided to form Buena Vista Music Group (now Disney Music Group), integrating the operations of Walt Disney Records along with Hollywood, Lyric Street, Mammoth, and Walt Disney Music Publishing. Bob Cavallo, former manager of Earth, Wind & Fire and Prince was appointed as chairman of the group, and president of Hollywood Records. This movement looked to organize the music operations of the company under a more integrated direction.


title: Hollywood Records

text: After some years of development, Hollywood Records had its first major success in 1998, when Fastball's second album All the Pain Money Can Buy was released and put the label into the mainstream with the hit single The Way. 5 years later, Metamorphosis, Hilary Duff's studio debut album, was released and became a success to the label, selling over three million copies in the United States. The launch of Duff's career represents a new business model for the record, utilizing the synergies around the company, including important outlets like Disney Channel, Radio Disney, ABC Family & ABC. Duff's albums released under Hollywood proved to be equally successful including Duff's sophomore album and 2005's Most Wanted. A similar business model was utilized in subsequent Hollywood's artists such as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, the Jonas Brothers and Bridgit Mendler with several records that attained Platinum or Gold certifications. These artists' music careers proved the label to be successful. At the same time, the label continued to develop the careers of acts with a less mainstream profile such as Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Breaking Benjamin or Plain White T's, but who had been successful in its own terms. The label also continued to release soundtracks from films and television shows, mainly those derived from Marvel Studios productions in conjunction with Marvel Music. In 2010, Hollywood absorbed the remaining operations of country music label Lyric Street Records, which became an imprint for the catalog of the defunct-label, currently managed by Hollywood. Later that same year, Queen left EMI Records for Universal Music-owned Island Records, with Hollywood continuing to remain the group's North American music distributor.


title: Hollywood Records

text: In January 2012, after 14 years of a successful tenure, Bob Cavallo retired as chairman of the group and Ken Bunt was appointed as president of the group. Several changes have been done under his tenure, including the retirement of long-time executives from the Cavallo's era like Abbey Konowitch, Justin Fontaine and Jhon Linda and the appointment of new A&R's like Mio Vukovic and Mike Daly. In March 2013, Disney Music Group and Universal Music Group announced the expansion of their relationship with a new commercial and creative agreement that enable Hollywood Records' artists to collaborate with the roster of producers and songwriters that are part of Universal. Since 2013, Hollywood Records also uses the brand name DMG Nashville to specialize in country music. The genre label was founded to provide music licensing for Bigger Picture Music Group. After Bigger Picture's closure in 2014, DMG Nashville released its first studio album; Lucy Hale's "Road Between". Starting in 2020, Hollywood Records has released a series of EPs under the name Music for the Movement, with social justice and protest songs.


title: Hollywood Records

text: Hollywood BASIC ["sic"] was Hollywood's short-lived hip-hop subsidiary, run by Dave Funkenklein, which existed from 1990 to 1995. It did not survive the distribution transition its parent made to PolyGram Records, and all of its recordings were deleted, save for those by Organized Konfusion, which were repressed under the new deal. It was the first label to record DJ Shadow, releasing his "Lesson 4" (a reference to Double Dee and Steinski) as the B-side of a 1991 single by Lifers Group, a hip hop group composed of prisoners at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, New Jersey. It also released Shadow's Legitimate Mix on the B-side of a single by the group Zimbabwe Legit in 1992. Arguably the most high-profile release was due to be "BASIC Queen Bootlegs", a 10-track collection of hip-hop remixes and reinterpretations of tracks by the rock band Queen and featuring roster names plus guests such as Ice Cube. Although the "BASIC Beats Sampler" confirmed its release date for April 1992, the album was not commercially released although it has since leaked online. Other notable releases came from Organized Konfusion; its challenging second album, "" (1994), was widely acclaimed. The label was also home of Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf, although, following the shooting death of Charizma in 1993, the music the duo recorded for the label was not released. This would later inspire Peanut Butter Wolf to found Stones Throw Records in order to make this music available. Acts on Hollywood BASIC's roster included Charizma and Peanut Butter Wolf, Lifers' Group, Organized Konfusion, Raw Fusion, Hi-C, and Zimbabwe Legit.


title: Hollywood Records

text: Upon its 1990 launch, Hollywood was distributed in the United States and Canada by Elektra Records, at the time owned by Disney rival Time Warner. Distribution in North America switched to PolyGram (now Universal Music Group) in 1995 (partnered with A&M in Canada until the formation of Universal in 1999). Today, Universal Music Group markets and distributes Hollywood Records catalog worldwide. Also, several Hollywood artists including Demi Lovato, Bridgit Mendler, Selena Gomez & the Scene, Nick Jonas & the Administration, Joe Jonas, Miley Cyrus, Sofia Carson, Jonas Brothers, Sabrina Carpenter, and the new addition Dixie D'amelio directly signed to Universal Music UK's Fascination Records. There were reports in 2011 that Disney Music Group would start an independent US distribution arm for its label's releases, but as of February 2012, those plans have yet to be enacted. Universal Music Group acquired most of EMI in 2013 but pledged not to renew its European license with Disney; both sides eventually changed their minds. In March 2013, Disney Music Group and Universal Music Group announced the expansion of their relationship with a new commercial and creative agreement that enabled Hollywood Records' artists to collaborate with the roster of producers and songwriters that are part of Universal Music.


title: Nemean lion

text: The Nemean lion (; "Neméos léōn"; ) was a monster in Greek mythology that lived at Nemea. Eventually, it was killed by Heracles (Hercules). Because its golden fur was impervious to attack, it could not be killed with mortals' weapons. Its claws were sharper than mortals' swords and could destroy any strong armour. In "Bibliotheca", Photius wrote that the dragon Ladon, who guarded the golden apples, was his brother.


title: Nemean lion

text: Hesiod has the Nemean lion as the offspring of Orthus and an ambiguous "she", often understood as probably referring to the Chimera, or possibly to Echidna or even Ceto. According to Hesiod, the lion was raised by Hera and sent to terrorise the hills of Nemea. According to Apollodorus, he was the offspring of Typhon. In another tradition, told by Aelian (citing Epimenides) and Hyginus, the lion was "sprung from" the moon-goddess Selene, who threw him from the moon at Hera's request.


title: Nemean lion

text: The first of Heracles' twelve labours, set by King Eurystheus (his cousin), was to slay the Nemean lion.


title: Nemean lion

text: Heracles wandered the area until he came to the town of Cleonae. There, he met a boy who said that if Heracles slew the Nemean lion and returned alive within 30 days, the town would sacrifice a lion to Zeus; if he did not return within 30 days or he died, the boy would sacrifice himself to Zeus. Another version claims that he met Molorchos, a shepherd who had lost his son to the lion, saying that if he came back within 30 days, a ram would be sacrificed to Zeus. If he did not return within 30 days, it would be sacrificed to the dead Heracles as a mourning offering.


title: Nemean lion

text: While searching for the lion, Heracles fetched some arrows to use against it, not knowing that its golden fur was impenetrable; when he found the lion and shot at it with his bow, he discovered the fur's protective property when the arrow bounced harmlessly off the creature's thigh. After some time, Heracles made the lion return to his cave. The cave had two entrances, one of which Heracles blocked; he then entered the other. In those dark and close quarters, Heracles stunned the beast with his club. He eventually killed it by strangling it with his bare hands.


title: Nemean lion

text: Finally, Athena, noticing the hero's plight, told Heracles to use one of the lion's own claws to skin the pelt.


title: Nemean lion

text: When Heracles returned on the thirtieth day carrying the carcass of the lion on his shoulders, King Eurystheus was amazed and terrified. Eurystheus forbade him ever again to enter the city; in the future, he was to display the fruits of his labours outside the city gates. Eurystheus warned him that the tasks set for him would become increasingly difficult. He then sent Heracles off to complete his next quest, which was to destroy the Lernaean Hydra.


title: Nemean lion

text: Heracles wore the Nemean lion's coat after killing it, as it was impervious to the elements and all but the most powerful weapons. Others say that Heracles' armour was, in fact, the hide of the Lion of Cithaeron.


title: Nemean lion

text: According to Alexander of Myndus, Heracles was helped in this labour by an Earth-born serpent, which followed him to Thebes and settled down in Aulis. It was later identified as the water snake which devoured the sparrows and was turned into stone in the prophecy about the Trojan War.


title: Hitchens's razor

text: Hitchens's razor is an epistemological razor (a general rule for rejecting certain knowledge claims) that states "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." The razor was created by and named after author and journalist Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011). It implies that the burden of proof regarding the truthfulness of a claim lies with the one who makes the claim; if this burden is not met, then the claim is unfounded, and its opponents need not argue further in order to dismiss it. Hitchens used this phrase specifically in the context of refuting religious belief.


title: Hitchens's razor

text: The dictum appears in Hitchens's 2007 book titled "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything". The term 'Hitchens's razor' itself was used by atheist blogger Rixaeton in December 2010, and popularised "inter alia" by evolutionary biologist and atheist activist Jerry Coyne after Hitchens died in December 2011.


title: Hitchens's razor

text: Some pages earlier in "God Is Not Great", Hitchens also invoked Occam's razor. Michael Kinsley noted in 2007 in "The New York Times" that Hitchens was rather fond of applying Occam's razor to religious claims, and according to "The Wall Street Journal" Jillian Melchior in 2017, the phrase "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence" was "Christopher Hitchens's variation of Occam's razor".


title: Hitchens's razor

text: Hitchens's razor has also been called "a modern version" of the Latin proverb "" ("what is freely asserted can be freely deserted"), also rendered as "what is asserted without reason (or proof), may be denied without reason (or proof)", a saying attested no later than the 17th century. Another comparable saying is the legal principle attributed to the Roman jurist Julius Paulus Prudentissimus ( 2nd–3rd century CE), "Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat""Proof lies on he who asserts, not on he who denies". This principle has traditionally been connected to the presumption of innocence in English law, but in the 1980s philosopher Antony Flew argued that it was also an adequate preliminary axiom in debates about the existence of God, claiming that "the presumption of atheism" was justified until a theist could come up with good evidence in favour of the existence of a god.


title: Hitchens's razor

text: Hitchens's razor has been presented alongside the Sagan standard ("Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence") as an example of evidentialism within the New Atheism movement.


title: Hitchens's razor

text: Academic philosopher Michael V. Antony (2010) argued that despite the use of Hitchens's razor to reject religious belief and to support atheism, applying the razor to atheism itself would seem to imply that atheism is epistemically unjustified. According to Antony, the New Atheists (to whom Hitchens also belonged) invoke a number of special arguments purporting to show that atheism can in fact be asserted without evidence.


title: Hitchens's razor

text: Philosopher C. Stephen Evans (2015) outlined some common Christian theological responses to the argument made by Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and the other New Atheists that if religious belief is not based on evidence, it is not reasonable and can thus be dismissed without evidence. Characterising the New Atheists as evidentialists, Evans counted himself amongst the Reformed epistemologists together with Alvin Plantinga, who argued for a version of foundationalism, namely: "belief in God can be reasonable even if the believer has no arguments or propositional evidence on which the belief is based." The idea is that all beliefs are based on other beliefs, and some "foundational" or "basic beliefs" just need to be assumed to be true in order to start somewhere, and it is fine to pick God as one of those basic beliefs.


title: Majin Buu

text: , generally spelled Majin Boo in subtitles of the Japanese anime, and rendered as Djinn-Boo in the Viz Media manga, is the final antagonist in the "Dragon Ball" manga series created by Akira Toriyama, before the release of "Dragon Ball Super". He is introduced in chapter #460 "Majin Buu Appears?!", first published in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" magazine on March 1, 1994. Majin Buu is a genie-like magical life form awoken by the evil warlock Bibidi that terrorized galaxies by destroying entire planets, millions of years before the events of "Dragon Ball" take place. He was temporarily sealed away and brought to Earth; however, Bibidi was killed and Buu remained hidden. During the events of "Dragon Ball Z", he is revived by Bibidi's son Babidi in order to carry on his father's plan to conquer the entire universe.


title: Majin Buu

text: Manga author Akira Toriyama stated that when creating a villain in "Dragon Ball", he would try to make them different from any that had come before. Although it was difficult and he was usually not entirely pleased with the results, he thinks he did achieve this with Majin Buu. The "Shenlong Times" issue #2, a bonus pamphlet given to some buyers of the "Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide" guidebook, says that Majin Buu was modeled after Toriyama's editor at the time, Fuyuto Takeda. Buu, Bibidi and Babidi take their names from the song "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" in the Walt Disney movie "Cinderella". Toriyama stated that the fight between Buu and Gotenks was fun to draw because he was able to come up with odd techniques in "the spirit of gag manga".


title: Majin Buu

text: Majin Buu has several different forms, each with a different appearance and personality; however, all are pink creatures (with the exception of Pure Evil Majin Buu, which is dark grey) with an antenna on their head and several pores on both sides of their heads, arms, chest and vertebrae. They have a rubbery body (again, with the exception of Pure Evil Majin Buu) that can regenerate instantly from any wound, separate parts of it from themselves and control them independently, and can even completely restore themselves from vapor. Buu can also heal damaged beings, and can absorb other organisms by enveloping them with his body or eating them, the latter done by using his signature attack that turns people into food such as candy.


title: Majin Buu

text: When first introduced he is overweight and wears gloves, boots, a vest, and a cape. His appearance, magical powers, how he appeared from his ball, longevity, and how he is summoned to Earth by an evil warlock using the life-force of his victims are all somewhat genie-esque, an aspect further implied in the Japanese word "Majin" in his name, which can read as "Djinn", which led to Viz Media rendering his name as Djinn-Boo for the English manga release. His trousers, in all forms he takes, bear the same "M" symbol like many other characters associated with Babidi in this part of the manga; whether this is short for Buu's title of "Majin", Babidi's title of "Madoshi" in the original Japanese or something else is unclear. In a 2007 interview printed in "Shonen Jump", Akira Toriyama stated that Buu's design was inspired by adaptations of "One Thousand and One Nights" ("Arabian Nights") that he watched as a child.


title: Majin Buu

text: Majin Buu's manner is very naive and childlike, taking joy in fighting and scaring people. Throughout the series, he is always referred to by either Majin Buu or simply Buu, no matter what form he is in. However, each form has been given their own names in guidebooks, video games, or by fans, to distinguish between them. The first fat form seen is referred to as . When Buu expels the evil inside him, it takes on a taller and much skinnier, frail form referred to as . When this Buu absorbs the fat one, he transforms into a muscular version of himself, referred to as , with English media referring to him as "Super Buu". Personality-wise, Super Buu is more intelligent than Innocent Buu and is described as "pure rage".


title: Majin Buu

text: This intelligence allows him to plan for the opportunity to absorb Gotenks and Piccolo, and later Gohan. After absorbing the first two, his antennae lengthen forming five full-fingers, Evil Buu gains Piccolo's intellect and momentarily wore Gotenks's vest and strength before his latter victim's fusion wore off. He then absorbed Gohan, gaining his power while wearing his dōgi top and undershirt. The last form shown, referred to as Kid Buu or , is actually Buu's original form. Super Buu was forced into that state after the fat Buu was completely removed from his body along with Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and Piccolo. While a child-like version of Evil Buu, Kid Buu is completely feral and animalistic, living only to destroy and is called "evil incarnate". "Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide" refers to him as the "strongest enemy in the universe". Even after Kid Buu is killed, the fat Majin Buu lives on Earth as the completely kindhearted . In the anime, Buu's "Evil" and "Pure" forms' designs differ from the manga in that they both always have five fingers. Goku wishes for Buu to be reincarnated as a good person on Earth, so he's reborn as a boy named , who meets Goku during a tournament at the end of "Dragon Ball Z".


title: Majin Buu

text: In the original Japanese, Buu and all his forms are voiced by Kōzō Shioya in all media. He said he looked at the character as a self-centered three-year-old. Even through all the different forms of the character, Shioya explained that he tried not to deviate too far from the personality of the original while subtlety showing that he changed form.


title: Majin Buu

text: In the Funimation dub, Josh Martin voices Fat and Kid Buu, while Justin Cook voices Evil and Super Buu. Meanwhile, in the Ocean Group dubs, Fat Buu is voiced by Scott McNeil, while Evil, Super, and Kid Buu are voiced by Brian Dobson.


title: Majin Buu

text: Being the final villain faced by the protagonists in the original "Dragon Ball" series, and the franchise at the time, Buu is the most powerful of them all, possessing vast superhuman strength, speed and reflexes beyond comprehension. He is able to channel his inner "ki" energy for devastating offensive techniques capable of destroying planets or star system.


title: Majin Buu

text: Buu also holds the unique ability of being able to transform objects or living things into chocolate or other sweet foods which he then consumes to satiate himself, using the antenna on his head, and he is shown to be capable of magically altering an object's appearance.


title: Majin Buu

text: Buu is also able to instantly recover and regenerate from severe trauma, dismemberment and even combustion at a sub-molecular level, and heal wounds from other people. His body is soft but flexible, able to stretch his limbs and any part of his body on indefinite lengths, as well as changing shape into whatever he desires.


title: Majin Buu

text: He is also capable of detaching a large part of his body for various purposes, like ensnaring his targets like a lasso rope, and making clones of himself. This also allows him to absorb other people to obtain their power. Buu can instantly emulate techniques used on him, launching Goku's signature "Kamehameha" many times, and capable of using "Instant Transmission", in his original form. Buu is also revealed to possess godly "ki" after absorbing the two Supreme Kai, granting him a tremendous surge in power, retaining it after reverting to his pure state.


title: Majin Buu

text: Before the events of "Dragon Ball", the evil warlock Bibidi resurrected Majin Buu; a being that existed "solely to slaughter and destroy" and within a few years they destroyed hundreds of planets. Buu even killed two of the five Supreme Kais who govern the universe and absorbed another two including their leader the Grand Supreme Kai, which dulled his destructive nature and turned him into his current form. But Buu was still too ferocious even for Bibidi to control, resulting with the Majin temporarily sealed and moved to their next target, Earth. But the last surviving Supreme Kai took advantage of this to kill Bibidi with Buu sealed away on Earth. In the present day, Bibidi's son Babidi makes it his goal to revive Buu, which the surviving Supreme Kai plans to prevent by killing him. He underestimates the power of Goku and Vegeta, and their spent energy results in Majin Buu's quick revival. When Babidi threatens to re-seal him, Buu begins to obey his orders and destroys and kills everything and everyone in sight in order to get Piccolo, Trunks and Goten to come out of hiding. That is until Goku asks him why he lets Babidi boss him around, leading to Buu killing him, however he continues his mischief and destruction, unaware that what he is doing is wrong.


title: Majin Buu

text: Majin Buu attacks humans, destroying nearly all of the world's population, then builds a house by converting people into clay. He is resting in his house when Mr. Satan befriends him while waiting for an opening to kill him. The friendship coupled with the affection from a dog he healed, has Buu resolve not to kill anymore when two civilians shoot the dog and then Mr. Satan. Buu heals them, but the evil aspect of his personality takes advantage of Buu's rage to manifest out of his body, transforming into a taller and much skinnier Buu, who attacks the now weaker fat Buu. The evil Buu reflects fat Buu's attack, turning his benign counterpart into chocolate and eating him to become whole and transform into a more dangerous Majin Buu, known as Super Buu. Super Buu quickly senses Piccolo, Trunks, and Goten and goes to them, demanding Gotenks fight him. Gohan then arrives and clearly has the upper-hand over Buu, but Buu absorbs Gotenks and later Piccolo. Now stronger than Gohan, Buu, knowing that there is a time limit on Gotenks's fusion, planned ahead and is able to absorb Gohan as well. However, Goku and Vegeta fuse together into Vegito, but, despite being powerful enough to defeat him, they purposefully get absorbed by Buu in order to enter his body. Though the Potara Fusion ran its course, Goku and Vegeta manage to retrieve Gohan, Piccolo, Goten, and Trunks before they completely separate the absorbed fat Buu from Super Buu.


title: Majin Buu

text: The removal of fat Buu causes Super Buu to revert to his original form, known as Kid Buu, no longer deluded by his benign counterpart as he immediately destroys the Earth. Kid Buu then follows Goku and Vegeta to the Kai's planet, where, after a battle with Goku, he is stalled by Vegeta and fat Buu, so that Goku can finish him off with a giant "Spirit Bomb" made with energy from the people on the newly resurrected Earth. The good fat Majin Buu goes on to live with Mr. Satan on Earth as Mr. Buu, after the Dragon Balls erase the people of Earth's memories about him. As wished by Goku, Kid Buu is reincarnated as a child named Uub, whom, ten years later, Goku meets at the world martial arts tournament and leaves with to train as his successor.


title: Majin Buu

text: Buu encounters Beerus during Bulma's birthday party, and quickly provoked the deity into a rampage after he childishly refused to share some pudding dessert. Buu is later selected to participate in the Universe 7 team's tournament with Universe 6. He is disqualified before the tournament begins by falling asleep during the exam. Buu agrees to fight with Goku and Gohan in the Universe Survival tournament, being matched against Universe 9's Basil. Buu is initially overwhelmed, though becomes enraged over seeing Mr. Satan injured by the battle collaterally and quickly overpowers Basil. After consuming a drug that increases his power, Basil seems to gain the upper hand on Buu with a buffer form coinciding with his attacks, however, Buu is unaffected by the attacks and defeats Basil with a Kamehameha wave. Buu then heals Mr. Satan. After the mini-tournament, Buu begins to train on Earth for the Tournament of Power. Due to the intensity of his training, Buu gains a slimmer and toned body and spars against Goku, beating him. Alas, also due to the intensity of his training, Buu falls asleep and will not wake for 3 months, forcing him to miss the Tournament of Power. Frieza is temporarily resurrected to fight in Buu's place.