CANDIDATE ALSO CALLS FOR END TO FOREIGN AID …
Independent conservative U.S. Senate candidate Thomas Ravenel blasted his rival Lindsey Graham for the latter’s recent comments in support of a supplemental $225 million military aid package for Israel. Graham praised the appropriation – which comes on top of more than $3 billion in annual aid provided to the Middle Eastern nation.
“We will stand with you on the battlefield; we will stand with you in the court of public opinion, and we’re going to push back against the United Nations,” Graham said.
Graham’s remarks came as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily rebuked U.S. State Department officials for attempting to pursue a cease-fire in the Israeli-Gaza war that’s been raging since July 8.
Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and ambassador Dan Shapiro that the United States was “not to ever second guess me again.”
Ravenel said both Graham and Netanyahu were “becoming more bellicose” in their remarks.
“Strong leaders don’t speak that way – they don’t have to,” Ravenel said in a statement.
“Lindsey Graham and Benjamin Netanyahu love to talk tough with other people’s money,” Ravenel added. “Lindsey Graham just pledged to Israel that America will ‘stand with you on the battlefield,’ while Netanyahu was busy telling our leaders ‘not to ever second guess’ him. Who do they think they are making such commitments and dictating such terms like that to tapped-out American taxpayers?”
Ravenel added that Graham in particular should refrain from making such statements in light of his personal history.
“Lindsey Graham isn’t standing with anyone on the battlefield,” Ravenel continued. “He’s already been caught once lying about his military service, so he’s the last person who needs to use that analogy. And as for Netanyahu, it’s been nearly 20 years since he told the U.S. Congress that Israel didn’t need our aid anymore – yet he’s still drawing down more than $3 billion a year from our taxpayers.”
While campaigning for Congress and on his official website as a then-member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the mid- to late 1990s, Graham repeatedly referred to himself as “an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran.” He also repeatedly referred to himself on the campaign trail as a “Gulf War veteran.”
These claims went unchallenged until February 1998, when The Hill published a story about Graham’s fitness to sit in judgment of then-President Clinton – who at the time was facing impeachment for lying about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The Hill piece pointed out Graham was not a Desert Shield veteran, nor was he a Desert Storm veteran, nor was he a Gulf War veteran. While real soldiers were shipping off to fight in these engagements, Graham was a military lawyer whose closest brush with death came in preparing the wills of departing military personnel. Not only did he never see any action, he never even left South Carolina .
Asked to explain himself, Graham told The Hill he “never intended” to lie.
“I have not told anybody I’m a combatant,” he said. “I’m not a war hero, and never said I was. I never intended to lie. If I have lied about my military record, I’m not fit to serve in Congress.”
You said it not us …
In addition to calling Graham out for his hypocrisy, Ravenel said Congress should stop sending foreign aid to the Middle East – and elsewhere.
“We have no more business subsidizing Israel’s war machine than we have subsidizing radical jihadists in Syria or defending wealthy European nations who refuse to defend themselves,” Ravenel said. “Just as America’s tax dollars shouldn’t be used to pick winners and losers in our domestic economy, we shouldn’t pick winners and losers in wars being fought halfway around the globe.”
Ravenel said he supported Israel’s right to defend itself – but said it should do so “with its own money.”
We concur … wholeheartedly.
Graham’s incessant and increasingly ridiculous warmongering is bankrupting America … and making us less safe. It’s good to see someone finally calling him out on it – and proposing that the money wasted there be “put to work in the American economy.”
74 comments
My write up is much more informative. Why does Ravenel resent things associated w/ God? That is very liberal. Ravenel needs to attract GOP voters to elect Hutto (his goal.) SC political digest. Check it out.
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“My write up is much more informative. ”
Says who?
Quite hocking your schlock. If its so great, people will find it without you saying a word. You’re just someone else with low intelligence, poor grammar, a computer and an opinion.
I’m not “hocking” it quietly. I’m loud and I’m proud (to paraphrase the late James Brown.) LMAO…
“I’m loud and I’m proud”
You mean, like attending a gay parade?
So what if I did? It’s a free country, you liberal Bigot.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m supportive of you and your gay rights, I’m just surprised.
Call me sometime.
I don’t do well will dull, Dumb@$$#$ people. Nor do I need to settle for same sex, to feel I’m different, or get action…
I’m Different by a long shot…and I have more than I can handle on my side of the field. I don’t need to cross over, just to make sure I’m secure, or get in the game.
Promiscuity is not a platform that many conservatives promote. You know, being righteous as you try to appear. Since you are a “blogger” vs just an average reader like the rest of us please tell me: why did you capitalize Different above? Is that a grammar / spelling thing that us lowly readers missed in school? Also, since you constantly curse in your posts, although you encrypt them slightly, how does that square with your high morals, etc? God knows what you mean.
As I see it, you seem to have strong feelings and opinions that when questioned you can only respond with profanity and adolescent style shorthand like LMAO and the like.
Since Honeybun has dinner ready and my wine is getting low I will end this inquiry here: Have you seen a therapist? If not, perhaps you will find happiness that you never knew existed.
May the peace of Christ be with you.
Sweetheart. I miss you. Cum inside.
Who is this Ravenel person I keep reading about?
Either it is a bridge across the Cooper River or when spelled backwards it is a subdivision West of the Ashley. Only two answers I know.
Senator Graham, splits time and representation from the great state of New Jersey and Israel:
http://maplight.org/us-congress/contributions?s=1&politician=569&start=01%2F01%2F2008&end=12%2F31%2F2013&office_party=Senate%2CHouse%2CDemocrat%2CRepublican%2CIndependent&election=2002%2C2004%2C2006%2C2008%2C2010%2C2012%2C2014&business_sector=any&business_industry=any&business_id=J5100&source=All
He is earning Sheldon Adelson’s money. Good Boy. My only question is how much to carry my laundry Lindsey?
Those of us with a DD214 in our files are mildly amused by piss-fights between those who have none.
Not to say that T-Rav is not on point with this.
If Graham was on active duty during the above mentioned conflicts then he is a veteran of them regardless of where or how he served.
You are right. If he was on active duty he is a veteran. However, he cannot be called a veteran of foreign wars unless he served in the actual theater of operations.
Unless the rules have changed since my days (entirely possible, admittedly), all it required was 72 hours of any active duty service in-theater. I don’t think LG ever got that in Gulf I, but he may have in OEF and / or OIF…
I know Graham should be called a veteran, but I don’t know enough about him to know whether or not he ever served in theater. Maybe somebody can fill me in on some of this. Thanks Mike!
… he may have in OEF and / or OIF…
TBG will wager a years wampum that he [Graham] wasn’t down with OPP.
Oh you nasty Native American Redneck Jew; I see where you’re sneaking to with that… ;-)
I can confirm that LG was active duty in OEF. I met with him in Kabul.
Yeah, I looked it up after I got some time- he did do a short deployment to the ‘Stan as a USAF Colonel…thanks, though.
Exactly. He is not a veteran. He is a bullshit artist that got caught back in the days of little internet access by consumers.
He never left South Carolina. He is no veteran of anything, old man.
Service members don’t have to leave their state (or CONUS) to be a veteran. If you’re going to sling mud, at least be accurate and use terms correctly. Plenty of folks serve honorably in important roles, but never leave the US. I’m pretty sure LG eventually did a short stint in A’Stan at some point, so he is a service member, veteran, and OEF vet (not that he has ever concocted stories about being some kind of hero- he’s a JAG dude, for cryin’ out loud).
Tom is your DD214 like Paige Sawyer from Georgetown and says “general discharge”? Or is it like mine that says “Honorable discharge”?
I don’t know who you are but if you want to see Honorable Discharge on my DD214, please let me know. Otherwise keep your mouth shut when you don’t know what you’re talking about.
I hope you have a copy of that, friend! If not, that’s probably some slanderous nitwittery in which you’ve just engaged yourself, hero. If you actually are discharged from military service under honorable conditions (as you claim), you should know better than to throw that card down. What punk-ass behavior…
Maybe T-Rav has one that says “painful discharge”…
Oh, you can bet on that, amigo…
Sheeshus!!!!! Graham was trying to bullshit people that he was a veteran of war???? WOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!! … That’s some serious SHIT!!
Senator Graham is right to say we’ll stand with you on the battlefield. Israel is our greatest ally and has stood on the battlefield with use many times. They sent 100,000 soldiers to the Gulf War in 1991, and over 700,000 Israeli’s served side-by-side American soldiers in Iraq. And another 400,000 have served with us in Afgahnistan. Hold on a second – what? They never sent on single soldier to serve side by side with us. Well then clearly they gave us hundreds of millions of dollars to take out Saddam. What? They didn’t give us a dime? They actually just got more of our money? Wait a minute – do they ever do anything to help us? Just wonderin’
You are kidding, right? You don’t really think we would have dragged JEWISH SOLDIERS into Muslim lands to fight with us in a shooting war, do you? Holy shit, you may be as daft as Ravenel on foreign policy if you were serious.
Rocky is making a play to be the 3rd Stooge of this piece.
Graham has an extensive background in Air Force Intelligence and cannot go into many details about his background. His detractors know this and use it against him. He cannot defend himself without breaking some very serious laws. Most politicians know this and stay clear of that sort of criticism because it backfires every time it is tried. It is unpatriotic.
There is no rivalry between Graham and the coke head from Charleston.
Kerry negotiated with an intermediary and supporter of Hamas – Qatar. The US doesn’t (read didn’t until now) negotiate with terrorist organizations less they are legitimized as a state. Netanyahu has experience with these organizations and he warned the idiot Kerry, Obama’s puppet, that they were about to get humiliated and it would endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers. They ignored him and 90 minutes into the Kerry cease-fire Hamas killed two IDF soldiers.
For someone like white pants and pink shirt Ravenel to even speak on the topic shows that he is not intelligent enough to follow national events on CNN – much less represent our country in talks, discussions, negotiations or even parlor talk about scotch.
That said he nothing but a side-show, a spoiler candidate and person of low character and questionable intellect. He couldn’t get elected to county council. If he behaves himself for the next 7 years perhaps they will allow him to be President of the PTA so long as he donates heavily.
“That said he nothing but a side-show, a spoiler candidate and person of low character and questionable intellect. He couldn’t get elected to county council. If he behaves himself for the next 7 years perhaps they will allow him to be President of the PTA so long as he donates heavily.”
Give Tom Ervin a break. Seems like a nice guy.
Graham was an Air Force lawyer. Don’t pretend he had any top secret intelligence background. Those of us from the military know that’s a joke. Even he doesn’t make this claim on his website bios.
It is unpatriotic.
So questioning or [God Forbid!] disagreeing with Lindsey Graham on foreign policy is unpatriotic?
Really?
I, for one, would like to see any shred of evidence indicating Graham had “an extensive background in Air Force Intelligence.” Any references, links, books, articles, anything? Let’s see them!
It’s *secret*, so he can’t show you the evidence. : )
Because its made up bullshit coming from the Graham campaign.
“It’s *secret*, so he can’t show you the evidence.”
Like his man love?
Exactly.
Did you bunk with Graham during reserve duty? I’m sure he kept you warm at night,
Dude, I had to up-vote you based solely on the fact that you busted on TR’s obsession with dressing like the pussy-ass spoiled rich kid (at heart) he is…”white pants and pink shirt Ravenel…” That’s quality.
Fighting lawyers from the sky.
Fearful men who sue and fly.
Men who lie by night and day.
The brave men of of the reserve JAG corps.
Gay Senator
Don’t ask or tell
Never risked life or limb
look at time to play
I’m not a solider but I am gay.
Bravo!
And now everyone who reads “this website” (and pretty much no one else on the planet) will be aware of this.
Well, the old maxim that “two brains are better than one” is shot. In this case two brains equal two dim wits is less than two morons.
Any fool who thinks that opposing aid to Israel in the State of SC is a vote getter deserves the ass kicking and come-uppance that will be delivered in Nov.
I agree. Kinda like Ervin coming out in support of gay state sanctioned gay marriage. That is a real vote getter in SC.
Yossemitte Sam and Elmer Fudd weren’t as inept as these two.
Finally! Someone else who gets that THIS IS AN ELECTION. Not a game; not something TR can buy like a house or a polo horse; not an intellectual exercise. Campaigns and politicking are what they are, not what we want them to be. Let him stick with his “Fuck the Jews” line- that’ll work out well for him.
Did T-Rav spew his stupidity during Happy Hour at one of Charleston’s finest private clubs for privileged white people?
Neither Graham nor Ravenel ever stood on any battlefield anywhere in the service of any nation.
I give Obama credit. His regime fights every day on the battlefield for the muslim brotherhood and Hamas.
This is absolutely great news for the anti-TR crowd (in which I wholeheartedly include myself). It’s always great political optics for a spoiled-ass, rich, convicted felon who NEVER SERVED in any branch of the armed forces (and actually publicly renounced his American citizenship during a massive and very feminine hissy-fit!) to in any way try to impugn the military service record of a candidate who actually has, well, a service record. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, this is true of everyone from the lowliest enlisted National Guard dude who flipped eggs in the sandbox all the way up through the real nutcutters who come home with the medals. It always moves votes away from the attacker. Did I say TR may actually break 7%? I get a mulligan- I had no idea he’d go this route in SC…let’s move that back down to 3%…
When I saw the article title, I thought for a minute maybe Lindsey’s comment may have been, “love is a battlefield”. It actually sounds like something he would say, considering how busy he is trying to start wars here, there, and yonder, while arming our present and future enemies at the expense of American taxpayers.
Heck, I think Lindsey may even be in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGVZOLV9SPo
Lindsey is just a 2 bit FOBBIT who doesn’t ask and doesn’t tell. He’s not a soldier he is a pussy!
You married?
“Lindsey Graham and Benjamin Netanyahu love to talk tough with other people’s money,
while I roll other people’s money into a tube to snort coke.” T Rav stated…
Didn’t Graham and Joe Wilson co-issue some sabre-rattling but otherwise empty drivel about supporting Israel a few years back? Was it just a “fund-us too” appeal to AIPAC or something more?
Poster “Absurd Article – FITS new low” is a Ms Lindsey operative, and it shows.
Graham is like Windows 95 in a Windows 8.1 world. I remember him being called down on his outright and intentional lies. I had forgotten about that. But now it all comes back to me. Graham was blasted out the water over it. Pathological lying, indeed. Graham was gloating as if he was someone special and that his shit did not stink. Seems to me he is still this way. In fact, the more I think about it, he does look at himself as being some kind of saint, when he is not.
Even people in high places, they suffer from mental disorders – like Graham. Just look at Obama. Just look at Grahams pal, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. People who have master degrees, many of them too – are mental. You can have all the degrees in the world, but still be “fucked up” in the head – like Graham
Obviously, T Rav is very serious threat.
Graham been talking trash behind Tim Scott’s back one too many times. It got back to Senator Scott.
Sen. Tim Scott Refuses To Endorse Lindsey Graham.
A lie.
Graham’s support for amnesty for millions of criminal illegal aliens is hardly helping him. In fact, it will destroy him like it did Cantor.
False.
Uh, no it won’t, and the entire does not hate Graham. He polls in the 50’s (and occasional 60’s) here in SC, but even higher in some other parts of the US. Facts are pesky things, I know.
They are both bad… but I don’t like the idea of a coke-head getting elected…..
As opposed to a mealy-mouthed psychopath in favor of a unitary executive, the NDAA, NSA spying, kill lists and perpetual war? I’d take Ravenel in a heartbeat.
Sounds to me like T-rav was all jacked up rambling again.
Personally, I am going to enjoy this lively (even if shallow) “go for the throat” campaign.
All in all, I find T-Rav less of an embarrassment to SC than Joe Wilson. I doubt he’ll lose because people voted *against* him.
LOL….ROFL………this is a classic example of two politicians snookering the Fitsnews faithful readers…!!!
These two know full well that every battlefield is a location where young men line up and have no REAL CLUE of why they are really shooting at each other to begin with. Troops may get paid a stipend to afford a new Camaro and get benefits but just exactly who is benefiting from all that OIL and Diesel and JET FUEL that is being consumed to fight the war…!?!? Where are those Men…? Why are those men not being hunted and shot and killed and dragged out from under a desk….!?!
Do the troops not realize that their MOMs and DADs are not getting the real picture from the newspapers or radio or FITSNEWS…!?
Heck…..just how blind are the loyal readers to FITSNEWS….?
Boko Haram in Nigeria are fighting over ……OIL….!!
The war in Iraq was over ….OIL…….
Egypt and the Arab Spring was over the Egyptian Gas sales to Israel at below market prices….for decades……!!
Syria fighting is about the control of …..OIL PIPELINE routes…!!!
South Sudan is about the …..OIL….!!
Djibouti is about the …….OIL Ports….!!!
Ukraine is about the snookering of Russian gas ………PIPELINES…!!
LOL…..and everyone here does not stand up to Graham and Ravenel for wallowing in a battlefield argument and not having the “leadership” or balls to tell BIG OIL campaign donors to shove it where the sun don’t shine…!!!
This is classic ……….manipulation 101…..
Dear Thomas Ravenel………….
DO YOU really want to be a SENATOR…..!?! Well, do you ….punk..?
As God as my witness…..right here….right now ……..this very day. I, Philip C. Branton, bold face DARE you to come to SPAWAR Atlantic in Charleston South Carolina and have a nice friendly DEBATE for everyone to see and for FITSNEWS to report…!!!
If you debate ME….and have the guts……I can predict that YOU will win in November and defeat LIndsey Graham…!!!!
I can also predict that if YOU do not start getting in the comment section of every paper in our state….YOUR going to LOSE…..!!!!
SO………Mr Gut-check, what is it gonna be…!? Are you just going to be a “Southern Charm” for the Graham’s campaign “necklace”…?? …or……are you actually going to start being a MAN…..a Senator…!?!
You need to stop……pussy-footin’ around…!!! We have bold and brave men getting KILLED due to the lack of LIndsey Graham guts…!!! We have brave a bold ALCOA workers being threatened with a lay off due to the lack of negotiation leadership in electrical RATE discussions that ratepayers are gonna feel very “electric” about…!!!
Tommy …boy…….WAKE up…!!
{ S P I T }
{ Boomerang 101, 404, 601, 901…..}