Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Keep your eye on the ball, what's important, for once. Clinton gave us a kick ass economy and new job creation, as well as a budget surplus. AND Al Gore *invented the Internet.

*Notwithstanding that cheap shot from Republicans, as much as legislation can grease the skids for technology......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_and_information_technology

Of Gore's involvement in the then-developing Internet while in Congress, Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn have also noted:

As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high-speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship ... the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983.

When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises.[3]

On June 24, 1986, Gore introduced S-2594, Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986.[4]

Gore, himself, would later poke fun at the controversy. In 2000, while on the Late Show with David Letterman he read Letterman's Top 10 List (which for this show was called, "Top Ten Rejected Gore – Lieberman Campaign Slogans") to the audience. Number nine on the list was: "Remember, America, I gave you the Internet, and I can take it away!"[65]

A few years later in 2005, when Gore was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award "for three decades of contributions to the Internet" at the Webby Awards[66][67] he joked in his acceptance speech (limited to five words according to Webby Awards rules): "Please don't recount this vote."

He was introduced by Vint Cerf who used the same format to joke: "We all invented the Internet." Gore, who was then asked to add a few more words to his speech, stated: "It is time to reinvent the Internet for all of us to make it more robust and much more accessible and use it to reinvigorate our democracy."[67]