CHICAGO - President Clinton made a determined case for a second term Thursday night in a climactic convention address that took credit for blocking devastating GOP budget cuts and promised an array of new help for poor and middle-class families. "Hope is back in America," Clinton declared.Accepting the Democratic presidential nomination for a second time, Clinton took credit for the nation's economy and pledged that, if rewarded with four more years in the White House, he would balance the budget "in a way that preserves Medicare, Medicaid, education ,and the environment."
Clinton's speech was the finale of a Democratic convention remarkable for its show of unity, and he sounded the call to battle for a nine-week showdown against Republican Bob Dole. While Democrats were in an upbeat, confident mood, the embarrassing resignation of Clinton's top campaign strategist, Dick Morris, distracted from his convention celebration.
In speech excerpts released by the White House a few hours before Clinton's nationally televised address, the president declared
"Tonight, let us resolve to build that bridge to the 21st century, to meet our challenges, protect our basic values and prepare our people for the future. Let us build a bridge to help parents raise their children, to help young people and adults get the education and training they need, to make citizens feel safer on our streets, to help Americans succeed at home and at work, to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, to protect our environment for generations to come and to maintain our world leadership in the face of new threats and new opportunities."
SAN FRANCISCO - What'll it be? Chaste romance, or explicit sex? Harmless conflict, or wanton and gratuitous violence? The newest version of Microsoft's Web browser lets computer users be as nasty as they wanna be.
Internet Explorer 3.0 allows parents to decide exactly how much sex and violence they - and their children - can see while on the Internet.
Users control four categories: violence, nudity, sex, and language. They select settings in each category on a scale of zero to four - zero for the mildest content, four for the most extreme.
Once the settings are adjusted, the Web browser will automatically filter out unacceptable sites.
When a user tries to enter a prohibited site, this message appears: "Sorry! Content Advisor will not allow you to see this site. ... If you want to see this site anyway, you must get somebody to type in the supervisor password."
The ratings system was developed by the Recreational Software Advisory Council of Lexington, Mass., a nonprofit industry group formed to rate computer games and the Web. More than 4,000 Web sites have already registered, and 100 a day are joining the system, said Stephen Balkam, the council's executive director.
Netscape plans to incorporate the rating system in the next version of its browser, said spokeswoman Donna Sokolsky. America Online and CompuServer users will be able to use the rating system within the year.
"I accept certain levels of sexuality or nudity in TV and movies for my 11-year-old daughter, but I don't like her playing Doom because of the violence," Balkam said. "But I know parents who feel exactly the opposite, blood and gore are fine, but no sex, please."
In the sex category, for example, users can set their system to Level 0, romance, no sex; Level 1, passionate kissing; Level 2, clothed sexual touching; Level 3, non-explicit sexual activity; or Level 4, explicit sexual activity, sex crimes.
Under violence, the choices range from: "harmless conflict, some damage to objects" to "humans injured or with small amount of blood" and "wanton and gratuitous violence; torture; rape."