Tuesday, August 5, 2014

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Democratic strategist erases Twitter account after remarks about McConnell's wife


A Democratic operative deleted her Twitter account Monday following a series of what some called racist remarks about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao.
Chao, former U.S. Labor Secretary under President George W. Bush, is Asian.
Kathy Groob, who describes herself as an “advocate for women in politics,” sent a series of tweets related to Chao at a political event Saturday.
According to WKMS, Groob sent the tweets in response to comments McConnell made at the event, in which he referred to his wife as "the only Kentucky woman who served in a president’s cabinet."
In one tweet Groob wrote, “Hey Mitch, nothing against you wife and spouses should be off limits; since you mentioned, she isn’t from KY, she is Asian.”
Groob followed that tweet with another: “Google Elaine Chao, #MitchMcConnell’s wife. No mention of Kentucky, she is Asian” Groop wrote.
Her racially-charged comments drew a firestorm on Twitter from people who questioned why Groob was pushing a narrative that someone who is Asian could not also be from Kentucky.
In Chao's case, she and her family came to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was a child. She has been married to McConnell for more than two decades.
The state chapter for the Democratic Party condemned Groop’s tweets, calling her comments “abhorrent” and saying they “have no place in Kentucky politics.”
They added, “We strongly denounce them.”
Following widespread criticism from her own party, Groob later apologized for her “poor choice of words” and deleted her Twitter account.
Kentucky’s Senate race is one of the highest-profile races during this year’s midterm elections. It pits McConnell against Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Both candidates were at the Fancy Farm Picnic – a colorful political festival in Kentucky – over the weekend.
The event -- which drew a record crowd of 5,000 this year -- invites both Democratic and Republican candidates on stage to deliver short speeches while being heckled by the crowd.
Calls for comment to the offices of McConnell and Grimes were not immediately returned.

Israel says ground troops out of Gaza as cease-fire takes effect


The Israeli military has said that all of its ground forces have been removed from Gaza as a 72-hour cease-fire went into effect Tuesday. 
The truce, agreed upon Monday by Israel and Hamas, took effect at 8 a.m. local time Tuesday (1 a.m. Eastern Time). The Times of Israel reported that a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza minutes before the cease-fire was due to take effect. The paper also reported that Israeli's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets over central Israel, while two other rockets fell into open areas in southern Israel near the Gaza border, causing no damage or injuries. 
There were also signs of tensions created by the Gaza fighting spreading to Jerusalem and the West Bank, including two attacks police say were carried out by Palestinian militants.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the withdrawal would go forward after forces completed the destruction of the last of the 32 known tunnels used by Hamas militants to cross between Gaza and Israel to carry out attacks on soldiers and civilians. 
Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza on July 17, nine days after beginning airstrikes targeting Hamas militants and weapons caches. The Times of Israel, citing an Israel Defense Forces source, reported that approximately 900 Hamas operatives have been killed during the fighting. By contrast, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has repeatedly claimed that 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians. The war has also claimed the lives of 67 Israelis, all but three of whom were soldiers. 
Lerner said that some some 3,500 rockets had been fired at Israel by the time the cease-fire came into effect.He estimated that Israeli forces destroyed another 3,000 rockets on the ground -- but that Hamas has an equal number for future use. Lerner also declined to say how many ground forces had been involved in the Israeli operation, though the military acknowledged calling up 86,000 reservists, including rotations, during the course of its Gaza operation. 
Israel and Hamas were scheduled to hold indirect talks in Cairo during the cease-fire period in an attempt to broker a more durable settlement. However, the gaps between the sides are vast. Hamas wants Israel and Egypt to lift their seven-year-old Gaza border blockade, which Israel says would lead the militant group to import more weapons with which to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians. For its part, Israel has insisted that Hamas be disarmed. 
Previous attempts by diplomats to broker an end to the fighting have failed, and ending the conflict without a sustainable truce a sustainable truce raises the probability of more cross-border fighting in the future.

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