Marines with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment bounce their combat rigid reconnaissance craft off of waves near Gab Gab beach as they head towards their staging area for a boat raid Jan. 30. The raid was part of Marine Expeditionary Unit Exercise, an exercise being conducted by the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit on Guam. The Marines and sailors of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines are part of the MEU's Battalion Landing Team. Photo submitted 01/30/2006, taken by Cpl. Will Lathrop, 31st MEU

S. 852, Please contact your Senators!!
Co-Sponsor S. 852 to Aid Asbestos Exposure Victims

The U.S. military used asbestos throughout its facilities during and after World War II and as late as 1979. The U.S. Navy, in particular, coated bulkheads, pipes, floors, and ceilings with asbestos. Because of the lengthy latency periods of most asbestos-related diseases, many veterans are just being diagnosed today with asbestos related illnesses.

Veterans are barred by law from suing the U.S. government, which would be considered their employer while they were in the military. The tort system is therefore of no help to them. The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (S. 852), on the other hand, will provide these veterans with a much-needed avenue for obtaining fair and quick compensation.

Civilian employees of DOD and other firms that engaged in asbestos manufacturing and usage are also being hurt by their inability to gain relief from the courts.
S. 852 is a non-partisan solution to aid these very deserving Americans.


Take Action! - Help Asbestos Victims

Ali Al Saleem Air Base, Kuwait (Jan. 27, 2006) - Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Dr. Donald C. Winter, meets with Sailors of the Year and Sailors of the Quarter from various units assigned throughout Kuwait. Dr. Winter is in the Middle East to see first-hand the conditions, morale, and equipment in use by Navy and Marine Corps personnel deployed to the region. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Journalist Craig P. Strawser

It's a Kevlar blanket; the kind that Soldiers' Angels' Project Armor-Up provides to troops in the field. The blankets are used to help protect the floors and doors of Humvees from IED's and sniper fire.

Armor-Up works with Kejo Limited Co., an online distributor of Police, Security, and Military equipment, to provide these blankets to units who need them. But with each blanket carrying a cost of $925, the program needs your help. While many up-armored vehicles are now in theater, there are still Heroes needing the Kevlar blankets - Robin at Soldiers' Angels says three units recently sent requests.

If you want to know how much this program means to our Heroes:

Dear Ma'am,
I just want to thank you for all of your hard work and effort to
supply myself and my troops with armour. Your efforts will not go
unappreciated. It is people like yourself who make our nation the
greatest in all the world. The committment and sacrifice that individuals
like yourself make to support the soldiers out here in Iraq eases not only
the concerns of the soldiers themselves but also the minds of our families
and friends back home. I just want to reitterate my gratitude for your
wonderful efforts.

Sincerely,

SGT Michael

From Charlie:

Thank you guys so much for your generosity, this is the action that everyday citizens can take that show how much we are supported from our homes and even from people we haven't met. Although the Government is taking awesome measures to ensure our safety, gifts like this give much more than safety. They also give you security, security that there are people back home that appreciate the sacrifices.

If you would like to donate to help get these blankets to our Heroes in the field, visit Soldiers' Angels.

Soldiers' Angels Germany has more.

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- Left to right, Staff Sgt. Tony Rivera, Senior Airmen Jason Bauer and Darryll Morley, with Staff Sgt. Jason Sawyers, at rear of aircraft, provide dedicated aircraft security for this C-130 Hercules here. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung)

If you take a look at today's "Day by Day" cartoon, you'll see that Mother Moonbat Cindy Sheehan has some new friends.

Here's the story, from Reuters:

Chavez hails activist Sheehan in Bush protest
Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:55 PM ET

By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's left-wing president, Hugo Chavez, joined U.S. anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Sunday to assail President George W. Bush and promised to back her protest against the Iraq war...

..."Enough of imperialist aggression. We must tell the world, down with the U.S. empire," Chavez said hugging Sheehan and the widow of Puerto Rican independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Rios, who was killed in a gunfight with police last year.

Read the full article

TRANSFER OF AUTHORITY — U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kelly, commander 1st Battalion 17th Infantry Regiment, and the commander of Iraqi army 2nd Battalion salute during the transfer of authority ceremony from the 172nd Stryker Brigade to the Iraqi army in Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 25, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. John M. Foster

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Audit: Iraq Occupation Authorities Squandered Aid- Iraq Violence Kills 20
Woodruff, Partner Injured in Iraq
Video: Journalists Wounded
Courtroom Chaos
Video: Trial Turmoil
Bomb Targets Danish-Iraqi Military in Iraq
Iran Detains 50 Suspects in Two Bombings
Bombs Strike Christian Targets in Iraq

Moonbat Watch
Sheehan Considering Senate- Sheehan Plans New Protest

Hamas Rising
Israel: No Talks With Hamas
Merkel, threatening aid cut-off, to meet Abbas - Video
Rice Wants Nations to End Hamas Govt. Aid
Palestinian Gunmen Take Over EU Office

Politics
GOPers Want Bush to Release Jack Abramoff Records- Papers: Doolittle Aided Abramoff

Other News of Note
Mexican Immigration Official Arrested
Libya Closes Denmark Embassy Over Drawings

Fox News
China Celebrates New Year
70 Trapped in Canadian Mine
Bush to Talk Fuel Saving
Baby Found in Bag Alive, Floating on Lake in Brazil
Ark. Mom Smothers Kids
Polish Collapse Search Over- Video: Tragic Scene
Bernanke Set for Fed Reserve
Stocks to Watch: Exxon Mobil
Pakistani Train Derails - At least three dead, 40 injured in crash
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Iran to present new nuclear proposals to EU
Jury to be selected in long-awaited Enron trial - Video
Iran to present new nuclear proposals to EU - Video
Suicide bomber kills two police in south Iraq
Bush State of Union part of election-year strategy
Abortion rights groups say battle being lost
EU weighs poultry vaccination to counter bird flu
Pharmacists sue Walgreen over contraceptives
Emotional 'Flight 93' flies a safe course
Investor groups to pay $3.9 bln for Fairmont
Mittal seeks support for Arcelor offer
Sanofi Q4 sales up 7 pct, raises 2005 EPS forecast
Saudi Telecom Q4 profit surges, revenue growth off
Vivendi mobile arm shines; music, games disappoint
Weisel faces delicate dance in pricing own IPO
EXCO Resources sets IPO at 50 mln shares
HMV shares surge on bid approach
Vivendi mobile arm shines; music, games disappoint
ISoft plunges as health contract delay hits profit
Hollis-Eden up 19 pct on nuclear preparedness talk
Take-Two shares fall 16 pct on analyst downgrade

AP World News
Morales Faces Tough Task Remaking Bolivia
Pakistan Braces for Next Quake Challenge
Georgia: Russia Waging Energy Blockade
Iran Says Talks, Not Threats, Are Key
Finland's President Wins Another Term

CENTCOM: News Releases
TERRORISTS ATTACK CIVILIANS INSIDE MOSQUE
ABC NEWS CREW INJURED IN IED ATTACK

Military.com
Soldiers Tested in Harsh Alaska
Army Decorates Lynch's Rescuers
Bombing Shows Dangers Journalists Face
Four Marines Charged in Drowning Death

Department of Defense
Iraqi, U.S. Soldiers Engage Terrorists - Story
ABC News Crew Injured in IED Attack - Story
Iraqi Soldiers Seek Captive U.S. Journalist
Nations New to Democracy Help Each Other - Story

ON THE GROUND
Efforts in Tal Afar Have Restored Hope, Life - Story Transcript Video

IN IRAQ
Video: Humanitarian Mission to Village of Agar Goof
Marine 'Banshees' Wrap Up Iraq Deployment
U.S., Iraqis Clean Up Neighborhood for

IN AFGHANISTAN
New Hospital Symbolizes Afghan Progress

IN SOUTHWEST ASIA
Italian Pilot Deploys With U.S. Forces

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Two Soldiers, One Marine Killed
Iraqi Insurgents Battle Al Qaeda
Casey: Many Opportunities Ahead
Suspected Terrorists Detained
420 Detainees Released
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
Eye on Iraq Update (pdf)
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Humanitarian Efforts Underway
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Bush Stresses Transformation Gains
DTRA Opens New Headquarters
Marine SOC Will Enhance Readiness
Bush: Surveillance Saves Lives
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
National Guard, Reserve Update

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
1077 - Pope Gregory VII pardons German emperor Henry IV
1349 - Jews of Freilsburg Germany are massacred; Günther of Schwarzburg chosen German anti-king
1467 - Battle at Velke Kostolany Hung - King Mátyás Corvinus beats Bratríci
1487 - Bell chimes invented
1522 - Duke of Albany takes captured French back to Scotland
1544 - Adrian van Goes becomes land advocate of Holland
1592 - Ippolito Aldobrandini elected Pope Clement VIII
1647 - Scots agree to sell King Charles I to English Parliament for £400
1648 - Spain & Netherlands sign Peace of Münster, ending Tachtigjarige War
1667 - Russia & Poland sign the Treaty of Andrussovo
1713 - England & Netherlands sign 2nd anti-French boundary treaty
1781 - Articles of Confederation ratified by 13th state, Maryland
1790 - Lifeboat 1st tested at sea, by Mr Greathead, the inventor
1797 - Congress refuses to accept 1st petitions from American blacks
1798 - Representative Matthew Lyon (Vermont) spits in face of Representative Roger Griswold (Connecticut) in US House of Representatives, after an argument
1804 - Mungo Park leaves England seeking source of Niger River
1806 - Prussia takes possession of Hanover
1815 - Burned Library of Congress reestablished with Jefferson's 6500 volumes
1820 - Edward Bransfield aboard Williams discovers Antarctica (UK claim)
1835 - Richard Lawrence misfires at President Andrew Jackson in Washington DC
1847 - Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco
1854 - 1st election in Washington Territory; 1,682 votes cast
1862 - US Navy's 1st ironclad warship (Monitor) launched
1877 - Storm flood ravages Dutch coastal provinces
1879 - French President MacMahon resigns
1892 - Captain Lugard occupies Uganda's King Mwanga's hide out
1894 - Pneumatic hammer patented by Charles King of Detroit; US flag fired on in Rio - prompt satisfaction exacted by Admiral Benham
1895 - SS Elbe sinks after collision in North Sea, 332 killed
1911 - 1st rescue of an air passenger by a ship, near Havana, Cuba
1913 - House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill
1915 - German submarine attack on Le Havre
1921 - French rapist-murderer Henri-Désiré Landru sentenced to death
1922 - World Law Day, 1st celebrated
1925 - Turkish government throws out Constantine VI of Constantinople
1928 - 1st radio telephone connection between Netherlands & US
1933 - German President von Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor, Hitler forms government with Von Papen
1934 - Hitler proclamation on German unified states
1939 - Hitler calls for the extermination of Jews; Heavy after shocks destroy some of Chile
1941 - Australian troops conquer Derna, Libya; Japanese troops land on Ambon
1943 - 6 British Mosquitos daylight bomb Berlin; German assault on French in Tunisia; German under officers shot down in Haarlem Netherlands; Hitler promotes Friedrich von Paul to General - field marshal; Illegal opposition newspaper "Loyal" begins publishing; USS Chicago sinks in Pacific Ocean
1944 - US invades Majuro, Marshall Islands
1945 - German ship Wilhelm Gustloff torpedoed off Danzig by Soviet sub-c 7,700 die
1946 - 1st issue of Franklin Roosevelt dime
1951 - Belgium refuses to allow communists to make speeches on radio
1954 - Belgium ends trade agreement with USSR; Italy's Fanfani government resigns
1956 - Martin Luther King Jr's home bombed
1957 - US Congress accepts "Eisenhower-doctrine"
1958 - 1st 2-way moving sidewalk in service, Dallas, TX; House of Lords passes bill allowing women in; Baseball announces players & coaches rather than fans pick all stars
1960 - CIA oks Lockheed to produce a new U-2 aircraft (Oxcart); Dutch communist trade union EVC'58 disbands
1961 - JFK asks for an Alliance for Progress & Peace Corps
1962 - UN General Assembly censures Portugal (because of Angola); 2 members of Flying Wallendas' high-wire act killed when their 7-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit
1964 - Ranger 6 launched; makes perfect flight to Moon, but cameras fail; Military coup of General Nguyen Khanh in South Vietnam
1965 - State funeral of Winston Churchill
1968 - Vietcong launch Tet-offensive on US embassy in Saigon
1969 - US/Canada ISIS 1 launched to study ionosphere
1972 - Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth; Bloody Sunday - British soldiers fire on Catholics in Londonderry, killing 13
1973 - Jury finds Watergate defendants Liddy & McCord guilty on all counts
1976 - George H.W. Bush becomes 11th director of CIA (until 1977); William E. Colby ends term as 10th director of CIA
1979 - Rhodesia agrees to new constitution
1989 - 5 pharoah sculptures from 1470 BC found at temple of Luxor
1992 - Space Shuttle STS-42 (Discovery 15) lands
1993 - 100,000n Europeans demonstrate against fascism & racism
1995 - Car bomb explodes in Algiers, 42 killed/296 injured
1997 - Minuteman III launches

Birthdays
1609 - Wenzel E. Fürst von Lobkowitz, Austrian chancellor
1616 - William Sancroft, Archbishop (Canterbury)
1628 - George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham
1797 - Edwin Vose Sumner, Union Major General (Union volunteers)
1816 - Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, Union Major General
1822 - John Basil Turchin [Ivan Turchinoff], Union Brigadier General
1829 - Alfred Cummings Georgia, Confederate Brigadier General
1835 - Oliver Edwards, Union Brevet Major General
1841 - Alfred Townsend George, Civil War journalist
1844 - Moritz F. Freiherr von Bissing, German General/Governor-General of Belgium (1914-17)
1865 - Samuel Pl'h Naber, Dutch rear-Admiral/librarian
1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1933-1945)
1885 - John Henry Towers, aviator/naval hero
1892 - Grigore Gafencu, Romanian minister of Foreign affairs (1938-39)
1894 - Boris III, tsar of Bulgaria (1918-43)
1899 - Max Theiler, English/US microbiologist (Nobel 1951)
1915 - John D. Profumo, English politician
1924 - Shirley Chisholm (Representative-NY)
1927 - Olof Palme Stockholm, PM of Sweden (1969-76, 1982-86), assassinated
1930 - Magnus Adem Malan, South African minister of Defense
1931 - Stewart B. McKinney (Representative-CT)
1939 - Eleanor Smeal, feminist/president (NOW); Frank R. Wolf (Representative-VA)
1941 - Dick Cheney (Representative-WY/George H.W. Bush's secretary of defense 1989-93/Vice President 2001-present)

Passings
1156 - Herman van Horn, bishop of Utrecht (1151/52-56)
1384 - Louis van Male, count of Flanders/Nevers/Réthel
1393 - Aimery Poitiers French nobleman, burned at royal ball; Yvain son of Earl of Foix, burned at royal ball
1649 - Charles I, King of Great Britain (1625-49), beheaded for treason
1730 - Peter II Alekseyevitch, emperor of Russia (1727-30), dies at 14
1838 - Osceola chief of Seminole Indians, dies in jail
1928 - Douglas Haig, British field marshal (Sudan/Boer war/WWI), dies at 66
1948 - Mahatma Gandhi, India spiritual and political leader, assassinated by Hindu extremists in New Delhi, at age 78
1948 - Orville Wright, US aviation pioneer, dies at 76
1951 - Ferdinand Porsche, German car inventor (Porsche), dies at 75
1953 - Louis H.N. Bosch van Rosenthal, Dutch resistance fighter, dies at 68
1957 - Grigore Gafencu Romanian minister of Foreign Affairs (1938-39), dies at 65
1958 - Earnest H. Heinkel, German airplane builder (WWII), dies at 70
1969 - Allan Welsh Dulles, US diplomat/director (CIA 1953-61), dies at 75
1980 - Professor Longhair, king of New Orleans music, dies at 61
1993 - Taikichiro Mori, Japanese real estate developer, dies at 88
1994 - Bahjat Talhouni, PM of Jordan (1960-62, 64-65, 67-69, 69-70), dies
1994 - Jan L.N. Schaefer, Dutch undersecretary of Housing (PvdA), dies at 53

Reported Missing in Action
1973
Duensing, James Allyn, USN (CA); F4J shot down (w/Haviland), KIA, body not recovered

Haviland, Roy Elbert, USN (NY); F4J shot down (w/Duensing), KIA, body not recovered