On January 7th, many cities throughout the nation will be holding "Out Of Iraq" forums. I'll be taking part in a forum in Brooklyn at the Lafayette Presbyterian Church (presided over by my friend, Reverend Dave Dyson, and a long-time peace and justice for workers advocate).

Now that we have entered into the New Year, it will be time to ramp our energy. We need to hold the president accountable for his prosecution of an illegal and immoral war, not to mention the wiretapping of Americans.

And we need to hold accountable a

My friends at Progressive Democrats of America are spearheading a National Accountability Day on January 9th as a way to support the efforts of Rep. John Conyers who is pushing for an investigation and censure of the Bush Administration.

Here's what the beginning of PDA's release says:

"WASHINGTON, DC - Progressive Democrats of America and its allies are mobilizing nationally to support Rep. John Conyers in his effort to hold President Bush and Vice President Cheney accountable for their administration’s misdeeds in Iraq and domestic intelligence. PDA’s tens of thousands of members, along with tens of thousands of other concerned citizens, will call members of Congress on Jan. 9 and demand the censures of Bush and Cheney and investigations into possible impeachable offenses committed by them."

Our state is one of the best arguments for Medicare For All. We have about 3 million people without health insurance--many of them children. The New York Times has a front-page story on the massive increase in health care costs that New York will face in the near future because of health care coverage for government workers. New York City government will see its health care costs quintuple to at least $5 billion and perhaps $10 billion, according to the story.

It's clear to me where this is going: firefighters, teachers and other public workers will be told that their health care benefits are too generous. If those workers strike to preserve health care, the mayor or the governor will call those people greedy or, perhaps, "thuggish" (the billionaire mayor's favorite phrase). The strikers will be pitted against the rest of the public, most of which will not enjoy the kind of health care coverage public employees have.

Rather than have such an ugly face-off between two groups of our citizens--all of whom deserve economic security and good health--we should immediately extend Medicare to every person in our state, and across the country.

Where does Hillary Clinton stand on this issue? I would hope that she would join our campaign's call for Medicare For All. It's not enough to simply poke around the edges, as my opponent has done by embracing Newt Gingrich in a call for utilizing technology to improve efficiency in health care administration.

No, we must take on the powerful health care industry which is preventing families from having the health and economic security they deserve. I understand that this is difficult for my opponent because two of the largest health care companies are among her biggest campaign contributors. But, I would hope she would join us in our call and choose individuals and their families over large corporate interests.

Thousands of Sunni Iraqis demonstrated yesterday against what they see as a massive election fraud that took place in the recent balloting. And dozens more Iraqis died in violence yesterday.

So, the Administration spin that these elections would herald a new chapter in Iraq is just that: spin. The spin was accompanied by an announcement of a troop withdrawal in the spring but that, too, is a mirage: the troop level will decline in the spring by somewhere between 3,000-5,000 soldiers.

The reality is that the violence will not abate until the U.S. withdraws from Iraq. The conflict is aimed primarily at foreign occupation. The country cannot begin to heal until the occupation ends. That is what our campaign must relentlessly focus on in 2006.

Yesterday, I was out and about in the city trying to lend support to the transit workers strike. Sure, it was inconvenient, as I've heard many New Yorkers say, to get around. But, the strike is about a lot more than inconvenience.

And it's a good reason why we've embarked on this campaign. The Iraq war is the central issue for our campaign. But, the Iraq war is a symbol of something gone wrong in our country.

Yes, it's a drag that it takes longer to get somewhere and, yes, it's effecting people trying to get to work. But, the transit workers are really asking a basic question: where and when do we draw the line in defense of basic rights on the job? Airline workers are having their pensions ripped away, companies are filing bankruptcy to take away pay and benefits from workers (while executives still make millions), millions of workers are shouldering more health care costs and everyone is being told that they should not ask for a fair reward for hard work--all this in the richest country on the planet.