As you may know, Wednesday March 19, 2008 is the fifth anniversary of President’s Bush’s immoral, illegal and wrongheaded war in Iraq. Opportunities for protest are vast. The War Resisters, for example, plan to travel to Washington DC to blockade the IRS. But an early spring DC journey is not required. Protest in NYC. Those listed below are my favorites.

Noon

”Grannies' Peace Brigade Knit-In for Peace" rain or shine & with full program for
non-knitters", at Times Square Recruitment Center, Broadway & 44th St. Trains: #1, 2, 3, 7,
S, N, Q, R or W train to Times Sq-42nd St; B, D, F, V to 42nd-Bryant Park; A, C, E to 42nd St.-Port Auth.)

Protest hawk Congress Member Vito Fosella, 8505 4th Ave in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. R train to 86th St. Brooklyn.

4:00 PM

Antiwar contingent in rally at City Hall to stop NYC public school budget cuts. Unions, parents and children protest education budget cuts. The Iraq war has drained billions from our economy that might have been productively spent. The impact of the Bush recession has led Mayor Bloomberg to impose draconian school budget cuts. Protest Trains: R, W to City Hall; #4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall; J, M, Z to Chambers; 2, 3 to Chambers; A, C to Chambers; E to WTC.

In the event that NYC Council Member Charles Barron's post on superdelegates, below, has left you wondering what to do, turn your attention to this effort by Moveon.org-Political Action to remind Democratic Party Superdelegates about the democratic process.

Sign their petition here

Update: A link to an interesting debate on this post jump.

Moveon writes:

You've probably heard about the "superdelegates" who could end up deciding the Democratic nominee.

The superdelegates are under lots of pressure right now to come out for one candidate or the other. We urgently need to encourage them to let the voters decide between Clinton and Obama—and then to support the will of the people.

Can you sign this petition to the superdelegates right away? Click here to add your name:

If we can reach 200,000 signatures this week, we'll publish the petition along with the final number of signers as an ad in USA Today. If you're one of the first people to sign, we'll include your name (with your permission).

The petition says:

With four days to go before the polls close on Super Tuesday, Moveon.org-Political Action has endorsed my favorite candidate Barak Obama in the Democratic Party primary.

Moveon asked it's 3.2 million members-followers to vote. Not everyone did.

Vote results

Obama: 197,444 -- 70.4%
Clinton: 83,084 -- 29.6%

If you want to put time in to the Obama campaign through Moveon click here

UPDATE: Progressive Democrats of America, Brooklyn For Peace & others plan a protest at Sen. Schumer's Park Slope home Tuesday night. They write:

Senator Schumer's support of Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General is outrageous and we must respond.

New York Progressive Democrats of America joins with Brooklyn For Peace and other Neighborhood Peace organizations to protest Senator Charles Schumer's decision to support the nomination of Michael Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General.

PROTEST VIGIL - TUESDAY, NOV 6th, 6:00 pm
at Senator Schumer's residence: 9 Prospect Park West (corner of President Street in Park Slope)Brooklyn, NY

Protest Schumer's support of Michael Mukasey - who will support Bush's continued use of torture.
Protest Schumer's increasing support of military action against Iran and Bush's attempt to launch a new war.
Protest Schumer's continuing support of funding for the war against Iraq.

As Senate Judiciary power broker, Senator Schumer green-lighted the nomination of Michael Mukasey as Mr. Bush’s replacement AG to hit for Gonzo. The bad news of course is that Judge M cannot figure out whether waterboarding is torture. This put our senior senator in a spot. He now favors the Mukaseky. He may be a key to defeating it. What a sad situation.

One month ago when Rudy Giuliani's campaign tried, as one blogger put it, humping the corpse by using 9/11 as a theme for a fundraiser for Rudy Giuliani. The idea was to get people to donate $9.11 for Rudy, playing off the 9/11 myth that surrounds Rudy.

Needless to say, many of those who lived through 9/11, particularly those who lost people on that day, were disgusted by the idea.

Let's get one thing straight, and you can take it from someone who saw Rudy in action on 9/11: this whole Rudy 9/11 mystique is a myth. For coverage of that (from another New Yorker) go here and here.

Several hundred activists gathered at Columbus Circle Thursday night to start the battle to over-ride the veto by President Bush of the expanded State-Children's Health Insurance Program. The rally, one of 250 nationwide, was organized by Moveon.org-Political Action with significant help from SEIU Local 1199 and and Unite-Here. (You can see some photos of the rally here .)

NYS Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried told the crowd about how newly insured children he had met had averted life threatening medical problems because of the availability of health care. 1199 Organizer Andy King set the crowd chanting for health care and cheering his promise that the union would work with us until the veto is overturned.

George W. Bush vetoed the State Child Health Insurance Program at 10 AM Wednesday. The Reuters story (via the NY Times) is here and the fuller AP account is here

Moveon.org Political Action will take action with hundreds of rallies across the United States urging a veto over-ride. We will leaflet and ask the 70% of us who favor child health insurance to send Congress a serious wake up call: override this evil veto.

In Manhattan, Moveon Activists will rally on the West Side of Columbus Circle at 6PM Thursday You can sign up by clicking here

For those who want to take action online, Senator Patrick Lahey's Green Mountain PAC is soliciting letters to the editor about the S-CHIP over-ride. Click here.
The AFL-CIO is asking people to write their House members here

Have you been following the fight to reauthorize and expand the State-Child Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP)? Tuesday, a large majority of Congress members voted for a House-Senate compromise which will make lower cost health insurance available to millions of children who are, at present, without any. UPDATE: Thursday night, the Senate voted for S-CHIP 67-29; greater than two-thirds majority. Every GOP Senator in a tight bid for reelection in 2008 voted for S-CHIP and against Mr. Bush. President Bush, that deplorable politician, has promised a veto.

The problem progressives face is that, even with 45 GOP votes, we are 24 votes away from a veto over-riding two-thirds majority. Peter King and Vito Fossella, perhaps with a wish to avoid political extinction, voted for the bill (They’d voted against earlier versions in the House). Two NYS GOP Congress Members voted with Mr. Bush against Child Health: John "Randy" Kuhl & Thomas Renyolds. A Century Foundation poll shows voters want to spend more to insure more children and oppose a Bush veto.

Moveon.org-Politcal Action* is preparing to fight back, if Mr. Bush vetos. I’ve agreed to help put on a Manhattan Rapid Response Rally at 6PM the day after the Bush veto. We’ve decided to rally at the West Side of Columbus Circle in front of the Time-Warner building. We are still begging for permits. More than 150 others are planned. Please click here to sign-up and help. More suggested action and background post-jump.

King Coal Claims Some Democrats As it turns out, lobbyists for the coal industry solution for energy have significant support from US Senate Democrats. The plan which involves huge subsidized loans facilitate coal liquification is also reported here. Can you stand reading more about coal? The NY Times has put together a great page on the issues posed here. If, like me, you think the billions proposed to be invested in coal, would be better spent on lower or non-polluting energy consider Moveon.org's effort to stop this boondoggle. UPDATE: Perhaps because of the Moveon effort, Barak Obama is said to have backed away from his previous support of Coal-to-Liquid (Ill. is a coal state).

After the jump, a copy of Moveon's call to action:

Consider joining with Citizen Action, Move On & others to meet, greet Arizona Senator McCain in what I hope will be the only New York appearance of his ill-thought out campaign in favor of more war in Iraq. As a special Bonus, greet surge supporter Rudy G. as well (Will Bernie K. be with him?)

Thursday, May 17th 6:30 PM Outside Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers 811 7th Avenue @ 53rd St.

"Protest the Appearance of John McCain in New York City, Oppose the disastrous Bush-McCain m escalation of the Iraq War! Call on McCain to support bringing our troops home safely!

The Iraq War is immoral and a horrendous failure: taking a terrible toll on our troops, their families, and the Iraqi people. Sen. John McCain has become the leading cheerleader in the Congress for the disastrous Bush-led American occupation of Iraq. Come picket John McCain as he keynotes the annual New York Republican state committee dinner. Tell him New Yorkers want to pull the troops out and oppose the Bush policy of endless war!" Will our protest be noticed? Perhaps.