Clinton blasts groups advocating violence
   EAST LANSING, Mich (AP) - President Clinton sternly denounced
self-styled militias that he said call government an enemy and
preach violence against it.  "How dare you call yourselves patriots
and heroes," he demanded.
(* This coming from a draft-dodger!  Saying such to former veterens
of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf!  What do you call the
man who took your place in Vietnam, Klinton?  Who probably died
face-first in the mud as you gave aid and comfort to North Vietnam
while burning the American flag in England?  Yeah, what are you? *)
  "There is no right to resort to violence when you don't get what
you want," Clinton said in his harshest denunciation yet.
   Clinton spoke of groups "nearby and those far away," a pointed
reference to the Michigan Militia, one of the most active such
organizations in the country.
   James and Terry Nichols face charges of conspiring to build
explosives at James Nichol's Michigan farm with Timothy McVeigh,
the only person arrested so far in the April 19 bombing of the
federal building in Oklahoma City.
   The brothers have attended meetings of the Michigan Militia but
have been disavowed by the group.
   Leaders of the group said Clinton had wrongly portrayed their
movement as violent.
   "He's uninformed, he doesn't know what he's talking about,"
spokesman Ken Adams said.  "We've got the best government in the
world, but there are some people that abuse their authority."
   Mark Price, operations officer for the militia, said Clinton
ought to meet with the people he's talking about.
   "I would say, sit down with some members of the Michigan Militia,
talk to them man to man," Price said.  "We are working men of the
community and we love the Constitution of the United States and
will defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
   Clinton said most militia members "have never violated the law,"
and he defended their right to criticize the government.
   "But I also know there have been lawbreakers among those who
espouse your philosophy...So I ask you to hear me now."
   "It is one thing to believe the federal government has too much
power and to work within the law to reduce it.  It is quite another
to break the law of the land and threaten to shoot officers of the
law if all they do is uphold it," he said.
   "If you appropriate our sacred symbols for paranoid purposes and
compare yourselves to colonial militias who fought for the democracy
you now rail against, you are wrong.
   "How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live
in tyranny," Clinton said.  "How dare you call yourselves patriots
and heroes."
(* Ask those that died at the hands of the black-hooded Gestapo
when they raid the wrong house, when they raid the innocent.
Hitler didn't think there was any tyranny in Germany either. *)
   The president has sent Congress legislation to hire 1,000 more
federal agents and to give the FBI broader powers to infiltrate
and investigate paramilitary groups.  He praised Republican leaders
for promising to put a bill on his desk by month's end.  "This is
not, and must never be, a partisan issue," he told the stadium audience.
   Clinton said his comments were directed not only at paramilitary
groups but at others "who believe the greatest threat to America
comes not from terrorists from within our country or beyond our
borders, but from our own government."
(* Well, there goes at least 40% of Americans, according to Gallop
Polls... *)
                                ###
--- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j'
---------------