LEATHERNECKM31

Everything old is new again...

News item:  Sales of Spam — that much maligned meat — are up as consumers turn more to lunch meats and other lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food budgets.

This comes as no surprise to Don, a true Spamhead, who never stopped believing in the canned mystery meat. Born in 1950 at the height of post-war Spamania he stuck with it. A lot of his cooking when Lynette is absent involves Spam.

A traditionalist, he eschews nuevo-Spam dishes such as Spam Wellington and braised Spam tips for his Spam straight up... fried Spam sandwiches with a side of chips or those sweet-hot jalapenos.  

According to Hormel Foods Corp., strong second quarter sales of Spam helped push profits up 14 percent;  Spam sales were up 10.6 percent in the 12-week period ending May 3, compared to last year. In the last 24 weeks, sales were up nearly 9 percent.

Don is doing his part, but then his Spam consumption hasn't really changed since the mid-50s.

Don is concerned, however, that Austin's "Spamaram"--the 29-year-old celebration of the canned ham product--is in jeopardy... Don and other concerned readers click here.

And in case you wondered:

Spam Ingredients:

• Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added.
• Salt (for binding, flavour, and firmness)
• Water (to help in mixing)
• Sugar (for flavour)
• Sodium Nitrite (for color and as a preservative)

Yum yum!

(Some) Nutrition Information:

• Calories Per Serving: 170
• Calories Per Serving From Fat: 140
• Serving Size: 2 oz.
• Total Fat: 16g
• Saturated Fat: 6g
• Cholesterol: 40mg
• Sodium: 750mg
• Vitamin A: 0%
• Vitamin C: 0%
• Calcium: 0%

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia eats a sandwich of SPAM (Spiced Ham.--get it?) and mayonnaise on white bread three times a week... which explains a great deal.

Lastly... because you knew that I'd do it.... more Spam, Spam, SPAM

Sorry for the quality of the above but the "old" Newsweek cover (left) was gonna run, until the wife of Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham blew a gasket and demanded it be changed to the B&W, much lighter Obama on the right... complete with halo.

"After working on the attached cover all week and making multiple modifications, the cover was killed late Friday night. Why? The wife of the editor stopped by, apparently saw the cover and expressed her disapproval. Amazingly, the previously approved cover, worked on all week, was killed. I guess we know who has the final say..."

I was a reporter/photographer for 10 years and I know news photos and news photo editors and shooters (can I say that in a piece about Obama?), and there is simply no news justification to go with the poor, amateurish, over-exposed shot on the right. That's why I believe this story from Rumormonger. 

Meacham's wife reminds me of Larry David's wife, Lauire, a (raving, leftist bitch) both in real life and how she is portrayed on his HBO show "Curb Your Enthausdiam".... no wonder he divorced her.

That's her with Cheryl Crow, apparently an entertainer, and a spokesman for Weight-Watchers.

Fortunately, the show is going strong (although he divorced his TV wife at the end of this season as well.) On the show Laurie is "Cheryl", played by the sexy and lovely Cheryl Hines.

So what we have here... is not a "failure to communicate", but a bimbo, who controls her husband, who controls a major magazine, which is in the tank for any leftist candidate, especially Obama and, and uses its news coverage to throw the election to Obama and bring the country down.

And you didn't vote for gaw-damned one of 'em.

Maybe not old... new again... maybe it's what's old is tweaked and is new again.

The US Army has replaced our Afghan fighters' AK-47s--the most durable, ubiquitous and dependable shoulder weapon in the world--with the venerable M-16.

I'm not knocking the M-16 which in its current variations is a fine weapon (though the "knock-down" argument over the small, high-velocity. 5.56mm round versus the 7.62mm NATO round still rages). The reason for the change was brought about by improved and more disclipined marksmanship by the Afghans. At this point in the war the Third World's "pray and spray" approach to combat is hardly a winner.

The AK is everywhere because it's cheap and could be mass produced even by the French if they wished.

But beyond 250-300 yards, smacking someone with an AK, even for a decent shooter, is rare. The M-16 is very effective at 600 yards.

And we must remember that Afghanistan is not the jungle, tree-line environment of Vietnam, it's more ridge line, valley and canyons in which  medium to long range accuracy is an asset. 

Better trained Afghans with M16 and M4s will up the kill numbers, and despite all the crap about hearts and minds, and "talks", and diplomats..... depriving the enemy of his life is what it's all about.

In Marine Corps close combat training... I don't recall screaming "Aarrgghh.... Negotiate!!"

Et tu, Scott?

As a presidential press secretary Scott McClellan made an adequate White House intern.

As a friend and confidant, he's the guy who chats up your wife when you're out of town.

And it was his chance to do something important in his miserable little life, but he folded like a raghead tent for 30 pieces of silver.

McClellan's's kiss and tell book, "What Happened?" is apparently full of innuendo, supposition and self-praise and excuses while he bashes the president and key members of the administration.

A pampered little fat boy who went to UT, Austin, (explains a lot) comes from a politically-connected family; his brother runs Medicare and Medicaid, and his mother was Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, who ran one of the more embarrassing and corn-pone campaigns for governor in recent memory, last November.

"Texas is great, but we can do better. Now is time to replace this do-nothin’ Drugstore Cowboy with One Tough Grandma," said Strayhorn, former democrat, former Republican, former railroad commissioner, former comptroller, and failed independent candidate for Governor. 

And just to top off Scotty's gene pool, his father is a disbarred attorney who claimed that LBJ ordered the "hit" on Jack Kennedy.

President Bush has had some success in picking his people, but his loyalty to some of them has been his downfall... McClellan, a minor player, is one of his worst selection.

The Washington Post found this in the chapter on the Iraq war in the advance copy of his book: “What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”

Thank gawd Little Mac, whose only real accomplishment was being president of his frat, chose a life of eating donuts at Starbuck's instead of going to West Point.

I cannot find what sort of royalties McClellan will bank from from the sale of his book; his speaking fee $15,000 - $25,000 will rise in proportion to the sales of his book, which in turn will make him the darling of the left-wing Bush haters. It will be a sure No. 1 on the NYT best sellers list, and will lends itself to the obligatory anti-Bush movie or made for TV opus.

Ironically, he'll probably become a millionaire for his treachery, while his boss will probably leave after eight years in Washington, having lost money.

But then George Bush wasn't into it for he money.

Speaking of money... Remember William "Cold Cash"Jefferson, (D-LA) the congressman who stuffed $90,000 in his freezer until the feds showed up with a search warrant?

Well, here's a new wrinkle--another indictment for "Dollar Bill".

BTW, San Fran Gram Nan Pelosi, that crusading reformer of all things congress hasn't even started an investigation of Jefferson; hardly a surprise, the dem-lead House is too busy investigating Bush.

Jefferson gets a "pass" like Barry Obama, because he's black, and because he told Pelosi to take her suggestion that he resign his committee chairmanship, and place it somewhere sans sunlight.

Lastly, Allahpunditover at Hotair.com reports that the list for Sec State in an Obama administration contains the following fellow Marxists:

• John Kerry (he was in Vietnam),
• Joe Biden who simply refuses to stop running for president.
• Chris Dodd, Peace Corps veteran,
• and last and least, Little Tommy Daschle

Oil and one incompetant snake oil salesman

Tuesday torrent.

In Nor'Texas it rains like some monsoons I recall.

Coop and Capt. Jack deal with the accompanying light show and explosions well enough; Sparky believes he is about to die. 

My web hosting service, Typepad, has been giving me headaches for the last week or so; in that time you may have noticed fragmented sentences, missing words, etc. in my posts. This is largely the result of a "new and improved" Typepad composition page. They seem to be following the Bill Gates approach to computing---unveil the latest thing and then spend two years trying to fix all its problems.

Bear with me.

On the heels of the latest Soviet-style show trials in which thuggish members of congress demanded that oil company execs confess to and then justify their massive 9-cent-per-gallon profit gasoline while paying more than 40-cents-per-gallon in taxes, there's this:

"MOSCOW, May 26 (Reuters) - The Russian government cleared on Monday a proposal to reduce the mineral extraction tax on oil, the first of many steps it is planning in order to revive production growth in the key industry.

"The government approved amendments to the tax code under which the tax-free threshold for mineral extraction tax will rise to $15 per barrel from the current $9. The amendment needs to be approved by parliament.

"Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said the measure will allow oil firms to save over $4 billion annually and invest this money into new projects to spur production growth.Former president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin has also promised to introduce tax breaks for new oil-producing regions such as the Arctic shelf, Yamal and Timan-Pechora." was.

The Russians, murdering Commies who have only 20 years of "freedom", will be kicking back $4 billionin taxes which their oil firms will use to fund increased eploration and productions... some of it right on our doorstep.

So it's come to this... all the democrats and a good percentage of the GOP dipwads are Marxists and Putin's Russia is looking more and more like the post-WWII boom that made America the world's economic colossus.

"Keep leather pennies on yer eyes"

The bottom 75-percent of US wage earners pay fewer taxes than the 27 US oil companies-- $90 billion in 2006.

In addition to income taxes, the top 27 companies paid $10.9 billion in non-income taxes and collected more than $48 billion for the federal government in excise taxes on the industry’s products in 2006, API reported.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimates the “worldwide effective tax rate… of the top 27 energy companies was 40.7 percent in 2006. For the past three years, the oil and gas industry’s effective tax rate has exceeded top corporate income tax rate of 35 percent.”

 

In 2007, ExxonMobil, the nation’s largest oil company, reported $404.6 billion in revenue, $40.6 billion of which was profit. Yet the company paid $105 billion in taxes in 2007 – more than two-and-a-half times as much as it made in profit.

 

Gouging? Hardly; the thumb in your eye (and wallet) belongs to your government, not Exxon.

Sir Gaffe-a-lot.

Slips of the tongue, forgetting a name or "misspeaking" happen to everyone with a voice. And for those in the public eye--especially if running for the world's highest office--almost everything a candidate utters comes in for scrutiny.

The difference is, GOP gaffes (potato, po-tah-to) are dissected and blown out of all proportion, dire conclusions are deduced by the democrat media lackeys, but they virtually ignore the following Obama observations:

"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong."

Whaaat?... He sees dead peolple?  

I for one don't think this is a gaffe.... I believe that he actually doesn't know what Memorial Day means. "Quick Barry... and there's no life line. What do we honor on Veterans Day and when is it?"

and this:

Finding himself--the would-be CnC--devoid of any military experience, knowledge or appreciation on Monday's national holiday... he tried to wear a relative's battered helmet.

From the WaPo: "Referring to an uncle who had been one of the first U.S. troops into Auschwitz, the concentration camp, (sic) Obama said: 'The story in the family is he came home and just went up in the attic'."

Oh yeah, that's right; poor, pathetic combat vets who couldn't get a job or cope with their problems... throw yer uncle under the same bus you tossed your granny... Obama, you rat bastard.

Over at The Ace of Spades...they point out that Barry's mom was an only child (what uncle?), his father was a foreigner and was not in anyone's military, and finally, Auschwitz is in Poland and was liberated by the Red Army in January '45.

High school history students might recall that the American Army was having a bit of a problem at that point in its advance with what Patton and the rest called "The Bulge".

'Course even some high school students know we only have 50 states... not "57" or more.

And for eight years democrats have made a living slandering GWB as "dumb"?

Here's the Chi-Town Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet's tabulation of the Sir Gaffe-a-lot gallop to the demwit nomination:

Consider the items that have been accumulating since Obama announced on Feb. 10:

• Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together "because of what happened in Selma." Obama was born in 1961.
• Obama told Larry King on CNN -- asked about that anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton YouTube ad, a doctored version of a spot created for Apple computers -- "We don't have the technical capacity to create something like that."
• Obama did not know what he was talking about. Any professional media consultant can manipulate images on video. Turns out the creator -- unmasked last week as a political operative who worked for a firm overseeing the technical side of Obama's Web site -- made it at home on a Mac.

Read on:

May we live to their example....

                                  ALL IMAGES © TODD HEISLER/ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

This is the seventh Memorial Day since our global enemies declared a religious war on us on yet another sunny morning while we slept.

As of today, we have suffered the loss of 4,082 of America's best and brightest, which by previous measures of armed conflict is minimal, but nonetheless grievous; and at this major turning point in Iraq, the casualties are at a four-year low.

But on this day, our thoughts turn to all our honored dead... as well they should.

I've grown weary of criticizing the callous disregard and ignorance shown by tens of millions of our citizens; in the the UK the war dead are honored on "Remembrance Day"... perhaps we actually comply with the sentiment we're supposed to demonstrate, this one, single day of our 365--and simply remember.

We are in the midst of a war for our very survival; today we have weekly reminders of the cost of our freedom and who pays for it.

Here's a link to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

As of this day, we have lost 26 in May and the loss of each soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or Guardsman leaves behind comrades, friends and family who love that young American deeply; their lives will never be quite the same. 

But all of our lives are better as a result of their sacrifices.

Good speed, Allen, Bittner, Speedy, McStoots, Dolan, Sgt. Hill, and all the rest... comrades all.

The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem.
- Rev. Aaron Kilbourn  

Better than honor and glory, and History's iron pen,

Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men. ~Richard Watson Gilder

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.  ~Joseph Campbell

All we have of freedom, all we use or know -This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899 

 They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

These martyrs of patriotism gave their lives for an idea.  ~Schuyler Colfax

They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.
~Philip Freneau

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.
- Thucydides

“I consider it no sacrifice to die for my country. In my mind, we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died.”    - General George S. Patton