Let me introduce my Yankee Doodle Dandy portfolio, a compilation of red, white and blue stocks for investors to consider as they celebrate our nation's independence.

Regardless of your views on the Iraq war, there's no denying that defense stocks including Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), Northrop Grumman Co. (NYSE: NOC), Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) and General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) are reasonably valued. This is especially noteworthy considering that defense spending will need to be maintained at pretty high levels for years to come in order to replace equipment that's been worn out from combat. President Bush is proposing to spend a record $439 billion in fiscal 2007 on defense and another $42.7 billion on homeland security.

Lockheed, the maker of the F-16, seems especially cheap, trading at a forward multiple of 14.6. Its shares have only gained 4.6% this year even though the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and raised earnings guidance. Missile and defense electronics company Raytheon, up less than 3%, is in the same situation.

Investors often overlook the huge businesses that Lockheed and Raytheon have in areas outside of defense, including computer systems and air-traffic control. The managements of both companies also have vastly improved over the past few years. Northrop and General Dynamics have always been pretty well run.

Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), notably the second-largest defense contractor, also looks worth snapping up. Its stock is up less than 3% this year, which is surprising considering how well it's rebounded against European rival Airbus. The company trades at a forward multiple of 17.7.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has levied a fine which may bode well for The Home Depot, Inc.'s (NYSE:HD) sales of Charmglow grills this coming summer. It has been reported that Nexgrill Industries has agreed to settle a claim that they allegedly failed to inform officials of a potentially dangerous gas grill defect in a timely manner. The CPSC has provisionally accepted Nexgrills agreement to pay a $300,000 fine in the matter.

Nexgrill had received reports of gas grill fires, including reports of minor injuries, and allegedly failed to report the possible defect to the CPSC for 10 months. The news release states that Nexgrill had sufficient reason to believe they were dealing with a product defect. Finally, in June of 2006, Nexgrill did announce a recall of about 16,000 of the potentially offending grills. The possible defect exists in the placement of a fuel hose which may be situated too close to the heat source and thereby may potentially separate from the burner unit and create a fire hazard.

Nexgrill has made available a retrofit heat shield which eliminates the potential hazard. You may contact them regarding this corrective measure at this web address: http://nexgrill0025.serorder.com/. With this now behind them, both companies have the coming summer to look forward to.