FOOD FIGHT: David Paterson vs. Michael Bloomberg.

BARACK OBAMA HIRES PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: Clinton supporters “livid.” Maybe she was a double agent all along, though . . . .

MICHAEL SILENCE HAS A QUESTION FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: “If you don’t want bloggers using your stuff why offer RSS?”

Meanwhile, Don Surber emails:

There is the irony in an organization that steals stories (albeit from its members) left and right having the chutzpah to whine about people quoting its stuff.

As an editorial writer, I learned early on to find the actual source of the story rather than go with the AP version. It is a rip-and-read service that occasionally tries its hand at something beyond spot news reporting. It is what it is.

Ouch.

A PROFILE OF BLOGGER RANDY “SKBUBBA” NEAL, from Michael Silence.

YOUR LIFESTYLE, YOUR GENES, and cancer: “What is it about our lifestyle that raises the risk of many types of cancer? The main culprits seem to be the Western diet, obesity and physical inactivity. While we’ve known about the importance of tobacco and cancer for more than 50 years, we are just beginning to understand how diet, a healthy body weight and regular exercise can protect us against cancer.”

MICKEY KAUS: “McCain wobbles on judges?”

IN THE MAIL: Geoff Shepard’s The Secret Plot to Make Ted Kennedy President: Inside the Real Watergate Conspiracy. Also, from Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph Cappella, Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment.

WHY BRAZIL CAN DRILL, AND WE CAN’T: “It comes down to this: Where government has the property right, restrictions on development tend to be low. But when the private sector is the owner, environmental concerns blossom.”

It’s as if it’s all just some sort of giant shakedown scheme.

JAMES KIRCHICK ON THE GEORGE ROMNEY DEMOCRATS:

If Democrats wish to contend they were “misled” into war, they should vent their spleen at the CIA.

In 2003, top Senate Democrats — not just Rockefeller but also Carl Levin, Clinton, Kerry and others — sounded just as alarmist. Conveniently, this month’s report, titled “Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information,” includes only statements by the executive branch. Had it scrutinized public statements of Democrats on the Intelligence, Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees — who have access to the same intelligence information as the president and his chief advisors — many senators would be unable to distinguish their own words from what they today characterize as warmongering.

This may sound like ancient history, but it matters. After Sept. 11, President Bush did not want to risk allowing Hussein, who had twice invaded neighboring nations, murdered more than 1 million Iraqis and stood in violation of 16 U.N. Security Council resolutions, to remain in possession of what he believed were stocks of chemical and biological warheads and a nuclear weapons program. By glossing over this history, the Democrats’ lies-led-to-war narrative provides false comfort in a world of significant dangers.

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, a video stroll down memory lane:

LOWERING THE FERTILITY RATE IN BRAZIL, with soap operas?

TECHCRUNCH: Here’s Our New Policy On A.P. stories: They’re Banned.

More from Newshoggers.

UPDATE: Much more from Michael Silence.

CAN MCCAIN compete with Obama online? So far, not so much.

I MENTIONED A WHILE BACK that I was reviewing Robert Zimmerman’s The Universe in a Mirror. Now the review is out in the Wall Street Journal.

OBAMA AND THE POLLS: Not much of a surge showing.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Patrick J. Buchanan—Pseudo-Historian, Very Real Dissimulator.

MORE ON THE COUNTRYWIDE SCANDAL:

When it comes to charging abuse in markets like the mortgage business, American politicians, right up the ladder, should zip their lips. They’re not ones to talk.

That’s becoming ever more painfully clear with reports like the one Thursday from Condé Nast Portfolio suggesting that several key pols got favored treatment on their personal mortgages.

The lucky winners included folks like Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), plus several former Cabinet secretaries: ex-Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson; ex-Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (who is to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday) and ex-UN Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.

A diverse – but influential – lot. . . . The pols, for their part, claim they’re as pure as the driven snow in all this. Dodd calls any suggestion of impropriety “outrageous he and his wife “did not seek or expect any favorable treatment.”

No, of course not. Perish the thought, senator.

Read the whole thing.

METERING INTERNET TRAFFIC: Seems like a lousy idea to me. Back a few years ago when I was signing up for Verizon EVDO they offered me a choice between metered and unmetered service. I chose unmetered.

THOSE WEDDING BELLS ARE BREAKING UP THAT OLD GANG OF MINE: “Being gay is like belonging to an ‘exclusive club.’ I just worry that the drive to marry will end up kind of chipping away at the culture.”