What happened to Libby's canned goods?

Who owns Libby's Vienna sausage?

It's a matter of record that this very nice, very intelligent and extremely well-connected liberal reporter in Washington has had her work scrutinized more closely than the private lives of anyone except, maybe, George W.

Bush.

Why is that? Why is this kind of attention being paid to someone who seems like such a sympathetic, fair-minded person? We'll find out. But if you want to know why we'll never be able to trust the government about anything, this is why. This is why, in the name of freedom of the press, you should be very, very wary of every word ever said by the White House about Iraq. This is why, for the next few days, when someone tries to argue, as one did last night, that the White House has been honest, that it's just trying to get the facts straight, that it can't possibly be lying, that what it says really doesn't matter, that it's just talking "points" not "lies," don't believe it. Not if you've read this. I'm convinced the White House has done what it did in order to protect this reporter -- Libby, I'm sure, like so many others. And not because he's some sort of innocent, misunderstood guy who can't do evil, but because he's someone they can protect.

I'm not saying Libby is guilty. I'm just saying I don't believe the government would be wasting time and energy protecting him.

What matters more than anything else is that what the White House is doing and what it will continue to do, regardless of what it tells you, is not just the lie of a liar, but a deception. This is not because it's the White House, it's because it's the United States government. This is not only a lie of a liar, but a lie of liars.

There's no question of that. You know, I've seen the evidence from the prosecutor, Paul Rosenzweig. You know, it's very serious. I think all of us think it's very serious. I'm glad there was no jail time, but this is an example of somebody who lied and got caught.

If they're going to protect her, it's to protect the administration, not because she's a good reporter and they want to let her publish the truth.

Does Conagra make Libby's Vienna sausage?

Yes.

And it's better than the stuff you get at Safeway.

(3:55). But let's take a second to talk about this hot dog, how it's made, and what's in it. The Vienna sausage isn't just a sausage. It's a hot dog in disguise. And I'm not the only one who loves it that way.

I love Vienna sausage. And no other frank. Even the ones in red packaging. Why would you buy anything but a Vienna sausage? I asked my friend Mike.

I love 'em, too, Mike said. You know I don't like mustard on sausage but I love them together. They're a great combination.

So when Mike told me that the folks at Conagra make Vienna sausages, I wondered: Can they really make a better Vienna than the ones I love? To find out, I visited their meat-packing facility in Conover, North Carolina. And after talking with Conagra's chief sausage guy, we got to thinking: What exactly is in a good Vienna sausage? Well, there are many things. But to figure out what makes Vienna sausage good, we turned to someone who knows his sausages:

A good Vienna sausage should have some spice, a little bit of onion, a little bit of paprika and a little bit of mustard, said Joe Kocher, general manager at Vienna Beef, America's largest maker of premium hot dogs. For decades, Vienna Beef has been the king of cheap sausages. Its product is what I call the white-label sausages. You see them in gas stations and convenience stores and everywhere.

Vienna sausage is what you get in gas station sausages, said David Schafer, a former quality control manager for Virginia Slims, an international cigarette brand. When he was in charge of manufacturing, Schafer would often go to convenience store chains to help train their operators. He remembers one particular day when he was visiting a Virginia Slims gas station. The man in charge of the sausage line couldn't figure out how to fill a canister of Vienna sausages. And he wasn't the most patient guy.

Who makes Libby's products?

I think it should be noted that for at least two years, Libby's was making the statement: "We're making a better cracker!

Libby's is the cracker with a bite."

Then the company did a 180, saying it was making "the world's better cracker." (The slogan also included "Libby's makes crackers to be used.") The brand then spent the next year and a half trying to figure out which of its marketing slogans most accurately summarized the way in which they make their crackers. (It took about 2 1/2 years.) But we all knew their cracker wasn't any better than mine, so who cares?

My father's side of the family are long gone and now only my mother and I will tell you what you need to know - but you need to promise me that you'll keep any information private or else your family and friends will read here on TNSB. This site is only for the public to use.

It's a fact that I was born with a cleft lip; but when asked how it happened, I'll tell you. If you promise not to print it, I'll tell you the whole story of how my lips got to be so uneven.

Growing up as one of three sisters in rural Virginia, I always tried to find interesting stories to listen to when Mother listened to our little radio in her bedroom at night. But sometimes my sisters would take a different approach - they wanted an all-singing, all-dancing drama like those of MGM or Warner Brothers Studios starring the likes of Bette Davis or James Stewart. I knew they'd go away mad if I gave them what they wanted instead of finding the kind of information I had heard from my father's side of the family. He told me stories of how his father, uncle and great-grandmother would gather around to listen to the Great Gildersleeve (John Payne) every Sunday morning broadcast on WAVY Radio in Roanoke, VSometimes my dad made me go with him to the little radio station (even though I was seven) and we'd stand in the foyer of the broadcast booth just to hear him and my grandma talk for hours. In fact, he started this tradition of gathering the family in the room to listen. After all, this was before the transistor radio with portable cassette tapes, you see.