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| 2004/4/30-5/1 [Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan] UID:13497 Activity:high |
4/30 I am impressed, GWB knows about bit from byte. He said "..... one
bit". Wow.
\_ That's nothing compared to Al Gore, who invented the internet.
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/wiggins
Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the
importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.
\_ You know, if Star Wars had succeeded and Reagan had the
physical capacity today to say "I created Star Wars", all
you freepers wouldn't be saying that Reagan invented
laser-based-weapons. Fortunately, for Reagan, Star Wars
was only something you watch in movie theaters and he
never had a chance to make such statements that would be
intentionally misinterpreted.
\_ If Star Wars (SDI) had happened under Reagan then he could
say he "created" it. The internet didn't happen under Gore
either in the sense that he made it happen nor in the joking
sense that he literally created it with his mad skillz.
\_ You squished 2 posts. Use motdedit.
\_ Do any laser-based weapons exist today?
\_ Deployed? No. There's a prototype of a chemical-powered
laser mounted in a 747 which detects and destroys missiles.
Last I heard they were planning on bringing it into
production.
\_ but he did!!
\_ he took the initiatives.
\_ alg0r > joo
http://csua.org/u/74z
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore#External_links
\_ urlP? |
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| www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/wiggins -> www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue5_10/wiggins/ Why This Matters ++++++++++ Introduction It has become an automatic laugh. Jay Leno, David Letterman, or any other comedic talent can crack a joke about Al Gore "inventing the Internet," and the audience is likely to respond with howls of laughter. Even Gore himself participates in the merriment: in a recent episode of Leno's Tonight Show, Vice President Al Gore was seen holding the cue cards. Given the putative "fact" that he claimed to have "invented the Internet," this tendency towards exaggeration apparently even extends to Gore's own resume. No one would hire a new employee who was known to have padded a resume; The 2000 Presidential campaign has been deprived of debate and discourse that could have been informative and beneficial to the Internet community and the citizenry at large. One might see these consequences as the natural - and deserved - outcome of Gore's own exaggeration. This article explores how the perception arose that Gore in essence padded his resume by claiming to have invented the Internet. Senator in the late 1980s, as an advocate for high-speed national networking. Finally we will examine this case as an example of the trivialization of discourse and debate in American politics. The interview took place on March 9, 1999 during CNN's "Late Edition" show. But let's look at the entire quote in the context of the colloquy with Blitzer. Here is Blitzer's entire query to Gore: BLITZER: I want to get to some of the substance of domestic and international issues in a minute, but let's just wrap up a little bit of the politics right now. Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley, a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate? What do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process? Clearly, Blitzer is asking Gore to offer an explanation of how he differs as a politician from other politicians in general, and his rival at the time, Bill Bradley, in particular. Here is Gore's entire response to Blitzer's question: GORE: Well, I will be offering - I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system. During a quarter century of public service, including most of it long before I came into my current job, I have worked to try to improve the quality of life in our country and in our world. And what I've seen during that experience is an emerging future that's very exciting, about which I'm very optimistic, and toward which I want to lead. Here Gore appears to have been caught off guard a bit by the question, rambling a bit as he seeks to vocalize a responsive answer. He emphasizes his work during his years in the Congress - Gore served in the House and later the Senate - as well as his leadership on various issues. Perhaps not showing the most elegant variation in words, he mentions "initiative" three times. Clearly his overall message is that he worked hard on a number of issues, and took a leadership position relative to others - presumably including his rival Bradley. The overall thrust is that Gore paints himself as a forward-looking legislator and political leader. The rest of the interview dealt with George Bush and Elizabeth Dole as potential rivals, with Clinton proposals for community policing, with the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, and with the notion of engagement with China. If Blitzer thought he had caught Gore in a gaffe, he did not take note of it during the interview. But if Blitzer didn't notice (or try to exploit) the gaffe, the rest of the press had a field day. Articles and television coverage ridiculed Gore's statement. Any news report that tries to summarize Internet history by dating its origin to the 1960s or the year 1969 is oversimplifying. Such a news report is as sloppy as the statement for which they take Gore to task. There were too many significant milestones in Internet history to allow for a sound-bite length description of that history. Many reports linked Gore's misstatement with previous Gore gaffes. Gore has long been a promoter of the Internet, but he didn't invent it. Trying to keep a straight face, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott quickly issued a news release claiming that he invented the paper clip. The editorialist saw the Internet statement as part of a pattern of hype, of Gore overstating his own accomplishments. Like Lott, other politicians saw Gore's statement as fodder for ridicule. Most other media outlets downplayed or omitted Gore's role as a Senator in supporting national networking initiatives, instead concentrating on the apparent gaffe. By this point, there was little hope of correcting the record in journalists' minds. The December 3, 1999 Top Ten list demonstrates: Top Ten Other Achievements Claimed By Al Gore 10. Only man in world to sleep with someone named "Tipper" 8. While riding bicycle one day, accidentally invented the orgasm 5. Starred in CBS situation comedy with Juan Valdez, "Juan for Al, Al for Juan" 3. Came up with popular catchphrase "Don't go there, girlfriend" 1. Gave mankind fire The public quickly chimed into the fray soon after the CNN interview, as well. Note, for instance, this letter from Lew Pritchett of Placentia, California printed on March 19, 1999 in the Los Angeles Times: Up until Gore's announcement, all I knew of his inventions was global warming. Even President Bill Clinton joined the frivolity, joking to the Gridiron Club a week after the CNN interview: "Al Gore invented the Internet. Today's journalists are notorious for moving in packs, and the packs tended to quote the phrase without citation - and without checking the facts or the context. Months after the CNN interview, husband-and-wife columnists Steve & Cokie Roberts reported on a series of person-in-the-street exchanges. They noted in a January 2000 column: When Gore does try to assert himself, it often backfires - witness his claim that he helped invent the Internet. Millions of people may share Mike's superficial assessment. The phrase "Gore invented the Internet" has since been burned into the public consciousness. Of course, Gore is a seasoned politician, noted for his caution - even woodenness - when he is under the lights. We expect such a politician to choose his words carefully. The question is whether journalists like Cokie & Steve Roberts should be held to an equally high standard in quoting the Vice President. After all, his remarks were made during a live-on-tape, informal interview. The Robertses were writing for their syndicated column, and presumably have plenty of resources at their disposal for fact checking - and good fact checking includes getting quotes down accurately. Unlike Gore in a live-on-tape interview, the Robertses also had plenty of real time to get their facts and phrasing completely accurate. Even opinion pieces ought to have their factual components rendered, well, factually. If telephone lineman Mike and millions of other citizens had heard the accurate quote of "I took the initiative in creating the Internet," and if they understood the statement in the context of Gore's actual legislative record, then they might have a very different impression of the Vice President. The press, the politicians, the comedians, and the public all ended up with the same image of Gore as resume fabricator. But if we assess Gore's remarks in light of what he actually said, and examine his legislative record, we find that Gore is guilty of somewhat sloppy terminology, not a bold-faced lie. As we will see, Gore did indeed take an intellectual and legislative interest in promoting high-speed data networks in the United States, and he did this during the 1980s, at a time long before ... |
| csua.org/u/74z -> commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.Al.Gore.and.the.Inte.html Just as Republicans were beginning to eye the 2000 presidential race in earnest, the vice president offered up a whopper of a tall tale in which he claimed to have invented the Internet. Start with a fact, then circulate a paraphrase of that fact that makes it sound slightly damning without actually falsifying it. Then once that paraphrase becomes widely circulated, circulate a paraphrase of the paraphrase that sounds even more damning. Wired, for example, summarized the original article as follows: Vice President Gore tells a reporter the Internet was his idea. The first few paraphrases, then, were tendentious and polemical, exaggerated and misleading, but one hesitates to call them "lies". Gore made clear that the actions he took on behalf of the Internet were in the context of his Congressional service; It's only when we get to the word "invented" that we cross into the territory of clear- cut falsehood. The word "invented" suggests technical work, and the suggestion is that Al Gore claims to have done the technical work behind the Internet. And once that falsehood entered the media echo chamber, there was no stopping it. Look at the Washington Post quote that I introduced at the outset: Who's the real Al Gore? Attempts to answer that question expose a peculiar tone deafness and low-stakes dishonesty. Gore says he invented the Internet instead of saying, truthfully, that he pushed technological research. Wired might pretend that "invented" is a reasonable paraphrase of Gore's words. That would be, as we say mock-euphemistically when we're talking about Al Gore, a "stretch". But this quote explicitly draws the distinction between pushing legislatively for research and inventing the thing as a technical matter, admits that the former is true, and yet claims that Gore said the latter and not the former. There's no possible excuse here: whether he investigated the facts for himself or simply passed along a rumor, the author is projecting his own "low-stakes dishonesty" onto Gore. These echo-chamber falsehoods are useful diagnostic tools. They're like radioactive tracers injected into the system. When someone is paid to express opinions in the media, we tend to assume that they have a privileged access to the facts, when in reality they often have no more information than the rest of us: being busy people, they scan the headlines on the Washington Post on their way into the studio. Remember the one about Al Gore falsely claiming to have inspired the novel "Love Story"? And the author vehemently denying that what Gore said was true? If this were an isolated example then I'd put it down to randomness. But no: it's absolutely systematic, and yet it goes almost unremarked. The Neanderthals probably developed bigger brains so they could spread gossip. The echo chamber of the electronic media really has gotten worse in my lifetime. The reasons are many: * * The sheer number of talking heads. In the old days you had a few networks, each with a few shows. And the more talkers you have, the more opportunity you have for echoes. Talk is cheap, and the cheap talkers inevitably recycle stuff they read in the paper or see on CNN. Even when reporters do their jobs, the world of 24-hour journalism presents them with pressures to break stories before they're really reported. So rumors get injected into the media bloodstream, and then they get spread around before anyone has a chance to recheck them. This stuff gets fed into the echo chamber through the character assassins of the partisan press, and once it starts echoing there's no stopping it. You can trace every one of these effects in the epidemiology of the falsehoods about Al Gore, and you can trace them in the epidemiology of Whitewater. You've heard that phrase "200-page report", haven't you? The various forces have a multiplicative effect, and together they work to subvert the culture. And it's that corrosion of truth and reason that is destroying our society right now. |
| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore#External_links After returning from Vietnam, Gore spent five years as a 97 reporter for the Tennessean, a newspaper headquartered in 98 Nashville, Tennessee. During this time, Gore also attended 99 Vanderbilt Divinity School and Law School, although he did not complete a degree at either. Gore's mother was a member of Vanderbilt Law School's first class to accept women. The chronology of his military service is as follows: * August 1969: Enlisted at the 101 Newark, New Jersey recruiting office. Gore stated many times that he opposed the Vietnam War, but chose to enlist anyway. Some observers have noted that Gore could have avoided Vietnam in a number of ways. Gore considered all these options, but said that his sense of civic duty compelled him to serve. Some have suggested that Gore already foresaw that military service might be advantageous in his future career in politics. During the 2000 presidential election, some conservatives accused Al Gore of insufficient military service, because he was "only" a journalist and spent only five months in Vietnam, which some sources have characterized as "less than half the standard two-year tour". Although this is true, Gore served in the Army only 75 fewer days than the standard two-year term. Gore was not shipped immediately to Vietnam after completing basic training, spending most of his term in Fort Rucker. Because Gore was a journalist, he was never exposed to front-line combat, and some allege that his famous father's influence helped him to obtain this position. However, others argue that any man who enlisted with a Harvard degree had a good chance of being assigned a support specialty rather than an infantry position. Once in Vietnam, some also allege that Gore received special treatment as a former Senator's son (Gore Sr. Alan Leo, Gore was protected from dangerous situations at the request of Brigadier General 109 Kenneth B. For his part, Gore has stated that he knew Leo but rarely traveled with him in Vietnam, and that he never felt that he was being given special protection. On the other hand, Leo's testimony is that Cooper gave the orders before Gore arrived, so Gore would not know about them. The question of whether Leo freqently traveled with Gore or not still has not been conclusively answered. Gore defeated 113 Stanley Rogers in the Democratic primary, then ran unopposed and was elected to his first 114 Congressional post. He was re-elected three times, in 115 1978, 116 1980, and 117 1982. Gore served as the Senator from Tennessee until 120 1992, when he was elected Vice President. In 1988, Gore ran for President but failed to obtain the Democratic nomination, which went instead to 121 Michael Dukakis. On 122 April 3, 123 1989, Gore's six-year-old son 124 Albert was nearly killed in an automobile accident while leaving the 125 Baltimore Orioles opening game. Because of this and the resulting lengthy healing process, his father chose to stay near him during the recovery instead of laying the foundation for a presidential primary campaign against eventual nominee Bill Clinton. Gore started writing 126 Earth in the Balance, his book on environmental conservation, during his son's recovery. Earth in the Balance became the first book written by a sitting senator to make the 127 New York Times best-seller list since 128 John F. While in Congress, Gore was a member of the following committees: 130 Armed Services (Defense Industry and Technology Projection Forces and Regional Defense; During his time as Vice President, Al Gore was mostly a behind the scenes player. One of Gore's major accomplishments as Vice President was the 143 National Performance Review, which pointed out waste, fraud, and other abuse in the federal government and stressed the need for cutting the size of the 144 bureaucracy and the number of regulations. His book later helped guide President Clinton when he down sized the 145 federal government. In 1993 Gore debated 146 Ross Perot on 147 CNN's 148 Larry King Live. He is widely believed to have won the debate hands down, and public opinion polls taken after the debate showed that a majority of Americans agreed with his point of view and supported NAFTA. Some claim that this performance may have been responsible for the passing of NAFTA in the 149 House of Representatives, where it passed 234-200. As Vice President, Gore instituted a federal program that called for all schools and libraries to be wired to the 150 Internet. This was a culmination of work that he had started several years before. While serving in the Senate, Gore had introduced legislation which called for the creation of a new federal research center for educational computing to support an "information systems highway". During Gore's tenure as Vice President, he was a strong proponent for environmental protection . While a senator working on his book Earth in the Balance, Gore had traveled around the world on numerous fact finding missions. The insight he gained on issues such as global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the destruction of rain forests is said to have played a major role in policy making for the Clinton administration. In 151 1998 and 152 1999, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the 153 Kyoto Treaty, which called for reduction in green house emissions. Due to President Clinton's inexperience and Gore's service in Vietnam and in the Senate, Gore was often looked upon by President Clinton for advice in the area of foreign policy. He was on the first to call for action, that would remove Yugoslav President 154 Slobodan Milosevic from power in 155 1998. Gore also supported the bombing campaign ( 156 Operation Desert Fox) against Iraq in response to 157 Saddam Hussein's unwillingness to cooperate with 158 UN inspectors. Together Bill Clinton and Al Gore led the United States into the longest period of peace and sustained economic growth in American history, which was highlighted by 22 million new jobs, and real incomes rising for the first time in a generation. After two terms as Vice President, Gore ran for 160 President. In the Democratic primaries, Gore faced an early challenge from 161 Bill Bradley. Bradley withdrew from the race in early March 2000 after Gore won every primary election. On election day, the results were so close that the outcome of the race took over a month to resolve, highlighted by premature declaration of a winner on election night, and an extremely close result in the state of 166 Florida. Florida's 25 electoral votes ultimately decided the election by a razor thin margin of actual votes, and was certified only after numerous court challenges and recounts. Al Gore publicly conceded the election after the Supreme Court, in the case 167 Bush v. Gore, voted 7-2 to declare the recount procedure in process unconstitutional because it was not being carried out statewide and 5-4 to ban further recounts using other procedures. Supreme Court allowed the recounts to proceed using the process requested by Gore, although some different methods of counting votes would have resulted in victory for Gore. These included the notorious Palm Beach "butterfly ballot", which produced an unexpectedly large number of votes for third-party candidate Patrick Buchanan, and a purge of some 50,000 alleged felons from the Florida voting rolls that included many voters who were eligible to vote under Florida law. Some commentators still consider such irregularities and the legal maneuvering around the recounts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the vote, but as a matter of law the issue was settled when the 170 United States Congress accepted Florida's electoral delegation. Nonetheless, embarrassment about the Florida vote uncertainties led to widespread calls for electoral reform in the United States, and ultimately to the passage of the 171 Help America Vote Act, which authorized the 172 United States federal government to provide funds to the states to replace their mechanical voting equipment with 173 electronic voting equipment. However, this has led to new controversies, because of the security weaknesses of the computer systems, the lack of paper-based methods of secure verificati... |