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Not much is known about Jim, except the usual liberal disdain for the
US military and military members.

"usual liberal disdain"?

Let's see....some well known "liberals"....

There's president Jimmy Carter, who graduated from the US Naval Academy
and served in the Navy on submarines. He also won the Nobel Peace
Prize, for being instrumental in the only long-term peace agreement in
the modern Middle East (the Camp David accords).

I recall no Middle East Peace in modern times.

Peace *agreement*. Since those accords were signed more than 25 years
ago, former enemies Israel and Egypt have had peace between them.

Oh, WOW! One country in how many doesn't *actively* try to wipe Israel
off the map.

You sure got me there!!!

Or president John F. Kennedy, who served in the Navy in WW2. He was
awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for his leadership on the last
patrol of PT 109.

Indeed he was.

George McGovern was in the USAAF (15th Air Force) in WW2, flying 35
missions in B-24 bombers over North Africa and Italy. He was awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross.

A little before my time.

McGovern ran for President in 1972, but lost to Richard Nixon. Nixon
later resigned because of the Watergate scandal, in which people
operating for the Committee to REElect the President (known by the
acronym CREEP) burglarized the DNC Hq to get information about the
campaign.

McGovern's platform included a strong anti-Vietnam-war plank.

You don't say. I'll bet that he was your choice for President.

Vice president Al Gore enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam
during that conflict, refusing a place in the Tennessee National Guard.

Odd. Do most people get to "refuse a place" in their state's National
Guard?

I don't recall having that "opportunity." Ditto my brother.

The Current Occupant had that opportunity - and took it. Most of the
time he even showed up.

I STILL DON'T BELIEVE YOU.

You don't get drafted into the Guard, then "refuse" and go active-duty
instead. It just doesn't work that way, now or then.

You can join the Guard, the Reserves, or Active Service. Or in 1972,
you could get drafted into the Active Service ONLY.

John Kerry served in the US Navy, volunteering for Vietnam duty. He was
awarded three Purple Heart medals, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.
After his discharge from the military, he opposed the Vietnam War,
having actually been there.

Now there's a perfect example of disdain for his fellow military
members.

How do Kerry's actions show disdain for his fellow military personnel?

He went to Vietnam, and fought in that war. He formed the conviction
that the war was simply wrong, and that the USA should not be fighting
it. When he returned to civilian life, he opposed that war -
specifically, the policies of the politicians who gave the orders.

He testified that those he served with were murderers.

How was that "disdain for his fellow military members"? Should he have
not said or done anything, even though he had formed the first-hand
conviction that the war was wrong?

He had service commitment while he was testifying. Looked like he was
running for office

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt never served in any military,

Correct. He had polio and was unfit for military service.

though he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Our military is civilian led. Sometimes led well, sometimes not.

See above about John Kerry and Vietnam.

It was not Kerry's remarks about how well the war was being run, it was
his remarks about the people he served with that shows disdain for the
military and military members.

He led the USA
out of the Depression and through almost all of WW2.

He had a priori knowledge of Pearl Harbor and did nothing.

Conspiracy theory nonsense. Where's the proof?

PBS. Ever heard of them?

That just
might be considered disdain for the military and military members.

The Japanese were able to pull off the Pearl Harbor attack because:

1) The US thought it was impossible for a sizable task force to form up
and cross the Pacific without being detected.

2) Radar would spot any incoming attack. And it did - but those in
charge ignored the warning from the radar station.

3) It was believed that the water of Pearl Harbor was too shallow for
airplane-dropped torpedoes to be used. The Japanese developed torpedoes
and attack methods that would work in the relatvely-shallow water. They
also used dive bombing.

They also used 72 virgins?

His "New Deal" was
considered rather liberal in its time....

Extremely liberal.

Yet now most of it is considered a basic social safety net.

Only for those born prior to the boom years.

Yet now almost everyone wonders if it will serve them when they retire.
Bush is the only President that looked at that problem and proposed a
solution. One day you will be eating cat food.

It was his handling of the Bonus Marchers, veterans
of WW 1, that needed their promised pensions that might also be
considered disdain for the military and military members.

How?

The "Bonus Marchers" had been promised military pensions that would be
paid in *1945*, but they wanted the pensions 13 years early. (Can I
have my retirement benefits 13 years early, please?)

It was a lump sum payout, not a "retirement check" for an additional
13 years. Many of these people lost their homes. Too bad, huh?

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say, in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_march

"The Bonus Army or Bonus March or Bonus Expeditionary Force was an
assemblage of about 20,000 World War I veterans, their families, and
other affiliated groups, who demonstrated in Washington, D.C. during
the spring and summer of 1932 seeking immediate payment of a "bonus"
granted by the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924 for payment in
1945."

"The Bonus Army massed at the United States Capitol on June 17 as the
U.S. Senate voted on the Patman Bonus Bill, which would have moved
forward the date when World War I veterans received a cash bonus. Most
of the Bonus Army camped in a Hooverville on the Anacostia Flats, then
a swampy, muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core
of Washington. The protesters had hoped that they could convince
Congress to make payments that had been granted to veterans
immediately, which would have provided relief for the marchers who were
unemployed due to the Great Depression. The bill had passed the House
of Representatives on June 15 but was blocked in the Senate."

Herbert Hoover was president in June 1932. FDR wasn't even elected
until November 1932, and did not take office until 1933.

"After the defeat of the bill, Congress appropriated funds to pay for
the marchers' return home, which some marchers accepted. On July 28,
Washington police attempted to remove some remaining Bonus Army
protesters from a federal construction site. After police fatally shot
two veterans, the protesters assaulted the police with blunt weapons,
wounding several of them. After the police retreated, the District of
Columbia commissioners informed President Herbert Hoover that they
could no longer maintain the peace, whereupon Hoover ordered federal
troops to remove the marchers from the general area."

"The marchers were cleared and their camps were destroyed by the 12th
Infantry Regiment from Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry
Regiment under the command of MAJ. George S. Patton from Fort Myer,
Virginia, under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur. The
Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the U.S. military from being used for
general law enforcement purposes in most instances, did not apply to
Washington, D.C. because it is one of several pieces of federal
property under the direct governance of the U.S. Congress (United
States Constitution, Article I. Section 8). Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a
member of MacArthur's staff, had strong reservations about the
operation. Troops carried rifles with unsheathed bayonets and tear gas
were sent into the Bonus Army's camps. President Hoover did not want
the army to march across the Anacostia River into the protesters'
largest encampment, but Douglas MacArthur felt this was a communist
attempt to overthrow the government."

" Hundreds of veterans were injured, several were killed, including
William Hushka and Eric Carlson, a wife of a veteran miscarried, and
other casualties were inflicted. The visual image of US armed soldiers
confronting poor veterans of the recent great war set the stage for
Veteran relief and eventually the Veterans Administration."

Neither of which existed at the time - but not due to alleged "liberal
disdain for the military".

"By the end of the rout:
Two veterans had been shot and killed.
An 11 week old baby was in critical condition resulting from shock from
gas exposure.
Two infants had died from gas asphyxiation.
An 11 year old boy was partially blinded by tear gas.
One bystander was shot in the shoulder.
One veteran's ear was severed by a Cavalry saber.
One veteran was stabbed in the hip with a bayonet.
At least twelve police were injured by the veterans.
Over 1,000 men, women, and children were exposed to the tear gas,
including police, reporters, residents of Washington D.C., and
ambulance drivers."

"The army burned down the Bonus Army's tents and shacks, although some
reports claim that to spite the government, which had provided much of
the shelter in the camp, some veterans torched their own camp dwellings
before the troops could set upon the camp. Reports of U.S. soldiers
marching against their peers did not help Hoover's re-election efforts;
neither did his open opposition to the Bonus Bill due to financial
concerns."

Were Hoover's actions towards the Bonus Marchers a sign of respect?

Herbert Hoover was president in the summer of 1932. Hoover opposed
giving the veterans their bonus 13 years early.

FDR wasn't even elected until November 1932, and did not take office
until 1933.

"After the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, some of the
Bonus Army
regrouped in Washington to restate its claims to the new President."

"Roosevelt did not want to pay the bonus early, either, but handled the
veterans with more skill when they marched on Washington again the next
year. He sent his wife Eleanor to chat with the vets and pour coffee
for them, and he persuaded many of them to sign up for jobs making a
roadway to the Florida Keys, which was to become the Overseas Highway,
the southernmost portion of U.S. Route 1."

Instead of sending in the police, tear gas, and federal troops, like
conservative Herbert Hoover, FDR sent Eleanor with coffee, and helped
the vets find jobs.

Is that an example of "disdain"?

"A disastrous hurricane swept many of them and their flimsy barracks
away in 1935."

Did FDR have 2 year advance notice of the hurricane, too?

"After seeing more newsreels of veterans giving their lives for a
government that had taken them for granted, public sentiment built up
so much that Congress could no longer afford to ignore it in an
election year (1936). Roosevelt's veto was overridden, making the bonus
a reality."

Is that 1936 veto the disdain you meant? How does that compare to the
non-liberal method of sending in troops with guns, bayonets and
fire.....

"It can be argued, however, that the Bonus Army's greatest
accomplishment was actually the piece of legislation known as the G. I.
Bill of Rights. Passed in 1944, it immensely helped veterans from the
Second World War to secure needed assistance from the federal
government to help them fit back into civilian life, something the
World War I veterans of the Bonus Army had received very little of."

FDR *was* president in 1944.

Fair enough. But it still doesn't excuse your liberal disdain for the
military.

"usual liberal disdain"?

Yup.

Lessee....John Kerry acts on his convictions wrt Vietnam, and that's
somehow disdain.

Yes. Look at the content of his testimony.

FDR sends in his wife rather than troops to deal with protesters, and
that's disdain. He helps them get scarce CCC jobs, and that's disdain,
too. But when Hoover had them attacked by police and federal troops,
that *wasn't* disdain.

Fair enough. But there's still Pearl Harbor.

Is it disdain to send US military personnel to fight in a country
because of weapons-of-mass-destruction that do not exist in that
country?

Saddam had years to move his WMDs as he kept rejecting and ejecting the
inspectors while Clinton looked the other way.

He spent a decade sending up SAMs at US aircraft enforcing the no-fly
zone. He plotted an assassination of a US President. Then there were
the atrocities against his own people, and the abuses of the oil for
food and medicine program.

That alone should have prompted Clinton to act, but he didn't.