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Cindy Sheehan, dressed all in black with the words "greed kills" printed on her chest, was arrested by United States Park Police today after chaining herself to a White House fence as part of a protest against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to organizers, 61 people in total were arrested at the protest, which was also in service of efforts to "Close Guantanamo and Bagram, Surge Spending on Housing and Jobs."

Organizers said hundreds participated in the protest, which included poetry, song, and puppet heads of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice dressed in prison stripes.

While some protesters chained themselves to the White House fence, others lay on the ground, pretending to be dead, CNN reports. Organizers requested a meeting with President Obama to discuss their beliefs.

Sheehan and some of the other protesters apparently meant to evoke Guantanamo prisoners with their clothing. "On their backs, they wore the names of Guantanamo detainees cleared for release who remain detained under the Obama administration despite the White House’s heralded decision to shutter the prison," organizers said.

Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004. She became one of the major faces of the antiwar movement during the Bush administration.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** The president pushes for more health reform progress…

** The White House skirts the race question…

** Weighing decisions in Afghanistan…

HEALTH CARE: President Obama continues his health care push with a rally at the University of Maryland today while the proposal everyone had expected to bring senators together – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' plan – only has both Republicans and Democrats scurrying. However, there is optimism – not only from Baucus – that his plan could truly be a starting point on the road to consensus.

"On the surface, it appears that no one is happy with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) -- and that may be the best news President Obama has had in months," writes the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly.

"Within minutes of the release of the Senate Finance Committee chairman's long-awaited health-care reform bill Wednesday, the attacks started flying. Liberal Democrats and allies, particularly labor unions, fumed. Republicans, after being courted for months, denounced the work as pure partisanship.

"But behind the rhetorical fireworks was a sense that the fragile coalition of major industry leaders and interest groups central to refashioning the nation's $2.5 trillion health-care system remains intact. As they scoured the 223-page document, many of the most influential players found elements to dislike, but not necessarily reasons to kill the effort. Most enticing was the prospect of 30 million new customers.

"At the White House, after the delays and drama of summer, strategists spoke finally of movement and a possible path toward success on the president's centerpiece domestic policy goal. To keep up the pressure, Obama met with three lawmakers who had warned they would not support the Baucus bill.“

However, the guarded optimism didn't stop the sparks from flying Wednesday.

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Anti-War protestor Cindy Sheehan, the so-called "Peace Mom" who rose to fame several years ago when she protested against the Iraq War outside former President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch, was back at it again this week.

But this time she was protesting President Obama's vacation in Martha's Vineyard.

"The reason I am here is because ... even though the facade has changed in Washington D.C., the policies are still the same," Sheehan said, according to AFP, at a rally/press conference outside the school where the press has set up shop on the island off the coast of Massachusetts.

But Sheehan no longer has the following she once had, when thousands joined her in Crawford and across the country. As CBS News White House producer Robert Hendin reports, there were was only a handful of people in her audience yesterday, in addition to the four speakers. There were more present from the media than there were protestors.

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Iranian-American protestors have set up camp directly in front of the White House. They're urging President Obama to intervene on behalf of an Iranian enclave inside Iraq.

They're condemning what they describe as a brutal attack on 3,400 Iranians living in a camp north of Baghdad. They are members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, opposed to the regime there.

They accuse Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of sending Iraqi forces into Camp Ashraf at the behest of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei. who wants the Iranian exiles sent back from Iraq.

An American military team assisted wounded residents in the camp after the attack, but the protestors demand that U.S. forces re-take responsibility for security at the camp from Iraqi troops.

In response to the protestors, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this morning that the White House regrets any loss of life. Gibbs said the U.S. wants the Iraqis to treat all people with humanitarian concerns and he said no one should be put back in a country they don't want to go to.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

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The discovery of Navy Captain Michael "Scott" Speicher's remains in Iraq is a relief but also provides a sobering lesson, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said today on "Washington Unplugged."

Speicher was a Gulf War pilot whose F-18 crashed in the Iraqi desert in 1991. After 18 years, the Pentagon on Sunday confirmed his remains were finally found, after an Iraqi citizen who witnessed the plane crash led American troops to the spot where members of the Bedouin tribe buried Speicher's body. The Iraqi said the pilot died in the crash.

Nelson played a strong role in continuing the search for Speicher, a resident of Jacksonville, Fla., even though he was initially declared a casualty of war.

It was a "terrible mistake" for the Defense Department to declare Speicher a casualty before conducting a search and rescue mission, Nelson said -- a mistake the military will not make again.

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In an "an unusually blunt" memo obtained by the New York Times, a senior U.S. military adviser wrote earlier this month that the United States military should "declare victory" and leave Iraq – even though Iraqi security forces still face an array of problems, including corruption and poor management.

"As the old saying goes, 'Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.'" Col. Timothy R. Reese wrote. "Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose."

Reese argued that despite the problems besetting Iraqi security forces they are capable of maintaining order in Iraq. He suggested that it would be a mistake for the U.S. to keep any troops in the country beyond August 2010.

The current timetable, as outlined by President Obama, is to reduce the U.S. military presence in Iraq from about 130,000 troops to 50,000 troops or fewer next August. The remaining troops would perform non-combat operations, though these could include counterterrorism missions.

In his memo, Reese wrote that the partnership between Iraqi forces and their U.S. counterparts, who have taken on a more advisory role, has been fraught with problems.

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At a Rose Garden news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Wednesday afternoon, President Obama said that recent violence in Iraq has not changed the U.S. timetable for removing combat brigades from Iraq by the end of next August and all troops from the country by the start of 2012.

Mr. Obama said he expected violence to endure in Iraq and that both he and Maliki "have no doubt that there will be some tough days ahead."

"There will be attacks on Iraqi security forces and the American troops supporting them," he said. "There are still those in Iraq who would murder innocent men, women and children. There are still those who want to foment sectarian conflict."

"But make no mistake, those efforts will fail," he said.

The president said violence in Iraq is down and that "Iraqis are taking responsibility for their future."

"We're in the midst of a full transition to Iraqi responsibility and to a comprehensive partnership between the United States and Iraq based on mutual interests and mutual respect," he said.

He stressed that America "seek[s] no bases in Iraq, nor do we make any claim on Iraq's territory or resources."

The president said that in his discussion with Maliki before the news conference the two men discussed the "disputed internal boundaries that will be fundamental to the future of a united Iraq."

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In the morning, President Obama will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing, the Economic Daily Briefing, and meets with senior advisers in the Oval Office. Later, Mr. Obama will meet with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the Oval Office.

In the afternoon, Mr. Obama will hold an expanded meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, followed by a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office. They will then hold a joint press availability in the Rose Garden.

In the evening, Mr. Obama will hold a news conference in the East Room.

Here is the full schedule from the White House (all times Eastern):

9:30AM: President Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

9:50AM: President Obama receives the Economic Daily Briefing

10:30AM: President Obama meets with senior advisors

11:00AM: President Obama meets with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

2:00PM: President Obama holds an expanded meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki

2:45PM: President Obama holds one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Maliki

3:00PM: President Obama and Prime Minister Maliki hold joint press availability

8:00PM: President Obama holds news conference

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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visits the White House next Wednesday for the first time since President Obama took office.

The meeting comes three weeks and a day after American troops formally withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns as required by the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq.

A spokesman says the security situation in Iraq will be discussed by the two leaders, but the agenda also includes the need for further political reconciliation among Shia, Sunni and Kurds, and the timeline for withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Despite some recent "high-profile bombings" in Iraq, Mr. Obama believes the security situation there "has continued to dramatically improve."

He said last month that his top diplomat and military commander in Iraq, Ambassador Chris Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno respectively, "continue to be overall very positive about the trend lines in Iraq."

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Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a U.S. strike on Iran would be "very destabilizing," as would a nuclear Iran, during an assessment of American foreign policy in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Russia on "Face the Nation" Sunday.

The top military commander said America has "a very narrow window" of appropriate actions in the defiant country.

On the U.S.'s counterinsurgency strike in southern Afghanistan last week, Mullen said, "I'm comfortable with the strategy." He said the mission, which is largely focused on security for Afghanis, will include some of the "toughest fighting" the country has seen.

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