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A Call to Action in 2018 congressional races

9/28/2018

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star_pac_2018_position.pdf
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The attached document represents the view of the STAR*PAC Central Committee and advocates your involvement in your respective 2018 Congressional seat campaign in Iowa. We oppose all Republican candidates in that enable an administration that is dangerous to world peace as well as our national security and well-being.  
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STAR✦PAC's Iowa View in DM Register

5/27/2016

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senate_candidate_iowa_view_editorial.pdf
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WILPF: End rape as a weapon of war

4/20/2016

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​This blog entry is submitted by STAR*PAC Central Committee member Jan Corderman who is also a leading member of the Des Moines Branch of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. 

Rape as a weapon of war.
  Rape is one of the "rules of war"--a widespread and systematic feature of armed conflict—one of the no-cost “spoils of war” that generals bestow upon their soldiers.  While rape is certainly not a new weapon of war, women in Iraq and Syria are the targets of brutal oppression and sexual attacks perpetrated by the self-defined Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).    Among horrible acts too numerous to track, April 14 marked two years since nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their school dormitory in Chibok, Nigeria by ISIS affiliated Boko Haram.
 STAR*PAC believes the world can put an end to rape as a weapon of war. 
There are new efforts to stop this most shameful consequence of conflict.  The Boko Haram kidnapping sparked the global "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign.  Main stream press in this country is paying attention including Time magazine’s article in their April 18 issue that argued the silence about this crime must end.   The legal community has done its work to make clear that rape is recognized as a form of torture in international law--ISIS’s and their allies’ use of sexual slavery can be treated as a war crime, point-blank. 
Last July a consortium of 56 international human-rights, legal, medical, and religious groups from 22 countries petitioned President Obama to issue an Executive Order affirming the rights of female war-rape victims to comprehensive medical care, including abortion, under the Geneva Conventions.  (The Helms Amendment, a US law enacted in 1973 prevents foreign-aid funds from going to programs that also provide abortions.  Since most international humanitarian medical organizations rely in some part of the US funding, the executive order has been requested). 
Women’s rights advocates and their allies have gathered to discuss strategies and confer with representatives of government and civil society.  Formal talks were held in Istanbul, Turkey this past January and the talks have continued.  Grassroots activists like MADRE’s initiative “Ending Rape as a Weapon of War” on the ground in Iraq and Syria are already reaching out to survivors and their families with aid and counseling. Emergency escape routes to activist-run shelters have been created. Humanitarian groups visit refugee camps not only to bring relief supplies but to listen to women’s stories carefully and without judgment.
What should our elected officials do to be sure the dialogue continues?    What should be done to reduce the risk to those who escape and to ensure they are welcomed upon return to their communities? What can be done to encourage husbands to stop the shameful abandoning, and worse, of their wives who return home?    
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Email message voices support

1/12/2016

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The following message was received by a STARPAC supporter and posted with her permission...On Jan 7, 2016, at 12:34 PM, [name withheld]

I am the woman who manned the sign-in desk a few weeks ago in Des Moines (and my husband carried chairs around), and want to thank you for supporting O’Malley.
 
I don’t know if you are already on the MoveOn email list, but if you are, I hope that you will bother to vote for them to endorse & support O’Malley (see below).  I don’t have to tell you why – I want to thank you for your endorsement.  I learned a lot from the Q&A at your forum about the way that he thinks about keeping American – and the world – strong.  Which I agree is the only thing that will work (except that the MI complex will have to find new jobs in the Clean Energy sector, which doesn’t bother me at all.)
 
I have officially supported O’M as a county chair here in Iowa (very small county), and the more I research his time as Mayor and then Governor, the more I realize that he is the one person who might actually be able to get government to work.  He’s not the orator that Bernie is, and certainly not as slickly packaged as HC, but he finds a way to get to solutions. 
 
Hope that you all are well, and prepared for a Wonderful New Year. 
 
Hi!

I just cast my ballot in MoveOn's 2016 Presidential Endorsement Vote. This is a big decision, and I hope you'll vote, too.

You can vote here right now:
moveon.org/2016prezendorse

Voting is open to all MoveOn members--meaning, anyone who has ever joined MoveOn's email list member prior to the start of the voting period, which was 9 a.m. PT on Thursday, January 7. MoveOn has been around since the late 1990s, so if you're into progressive politics like I am, or if you've signed progressive petitions before, odds are you've joined their list before and can vote.

Voting is open until 11:59 pm PT this Sunday, January 10.

Be counted now!
moveon.org/2016prezendorse

Thanks.

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STAR✦PAC PO Box 41981, Des Moines, IA 50311 (515) 989-1787 
"A political action committee advocating on behalf of peace issues."