Over 1,000 protests, vigils and actions are scheduled over the coming days to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. Anti-war activists have also spent countless hours in recent months urging Democratic lawmakers to cut off funding for the war. Last week, Tina Richards, the mother of an Iraq war veteran, confronted the Chair of House Appropriations Committee Rep. David Obey in the halls of the Capitol. Richards joins us from Washington DC. [includes rush transcript]

Over 1,000 protests, vigils and actions are scheduled over the coming days to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. The largest protest is expected to be the March on the Pentagon on Saturday. Dozens of anti-war actions have already taken place across the country in recent days. On Monday, 100 activists in New York occupied a U.S. military recruitment center for two hours. 23 people were arrested.

In San Francisco, peace activists camped outside the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Antiwar activists from Maryland occupied the office of Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski and urged her to cut off funding for the war. On Thursday, 11 peace activists were arrested on Capitol Hill while attempting to enter the House Appropriations Committee meeting where lawmakers voted to approve allocating $100 billion more for the war. Gael Murphy, the co-founder of Code Pink, was among the arrested. She called Democracy Now! to report on what happened.

• Gael Murphy, co-founder of Code Pink, speaking from a police van in Washington DC.

Anti-war activists have also spent countless hours in recent months urging Democratic lawmakers to cut off funding for the war. Last week, Tina Richards, the mother of an Iraq war veteran, approached Democratic Congressman David Obey, the Chair of House Appropriations Committee, in the hallways of the Capitol. The interaction was filmed and later posted on YouTube.

• Rep. David Obey confronted by Tina Richards

Congressman David Obey later apologized for screaming. He said, "We are both frustrated, and that led us to have an argument that we never should have had because we both want to see an end to U.S. involvement in that war. What divided us was the question of how."

On Thursday, Obey's House Appropriations Committee approved an emergency spending bill that includes about $100 billion to continue fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation sets strict conditions on continuing the Iraq war for the next 18 months and would end U.S. combat there by September 1, 2008.

Tina Richards joins us now in Washington. Her son Corporal Cloy Richards was deployed twice to Iraq and served as an artillery cannoneer for the Marines.

• Tina Richards, Missouri peace activist and mother of an Iraq war veteran. She is the founder of the non-profit group Grassroots America.