A tough federal judge in Sacramento has become a folk hero of Central California citizens for protecting people and endangered species instead of putting the interests of either over the other.

In a searing opinion, [U.S. District Judge Oliver] Wanger ripped two Interior Department scientists for giving "false" and "incredible" testimony to support a "bad faith" delta smelt preservation plan.

The two scientists are Frederick V. Feyrer of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Jennifer M. Norris of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wanger also threw out huge chunks of the federal government's official "biological opinion" on five different species, calling the opinion, which is a guidance document for environmental regulators, "arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful."

Wanger has become a hero to millions of Californians thanks to his strict interpretation of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

It's a matter of putting the interests of obscure "species" ahead of the interests of mankind, which is not the policy of NEPA.

Read the whole thing.

I pegged Perry as a crony politician early on. He's Tom Delay redux.

The evidence is piling up.

What she wasn't thinking.

Elizabeth Warren that is. Her lecture on why we should soak the rich even more than we do left a few things out.

Ramirez shouldn't get paid for this one.

It came pre-drawn for him.

Obama's had his first half term.

The second half often features a lot of scandals. The Fast and Furious is developing slowly drop by drop. If Obma were smart, a big if, he'd put the word out that he wants all the details dumped right now and anybody involved should resign. But they never learn the Watergate lesson: it's not the initial act, it's the cover up that gets you.

The problem he has with the Solyndra Scandal is that he's in it up to his neck. The Lightsquare one has just started, but it looks seriously like another case of crony capitalism, exactly one of the things his base on the left hates. Crony green capitalism is just as evil as the regular kind, more so because it's hypocritical in the extreme.

Talk about unoriginal

The New York Magazine declares Obama "The first Jewish President." Certainly "Jewish" and "Israeli" have never been more different in meaning.

All the better to call Republicans and Israelis racist.

Greta Van Susteren raised hell over a piece in The Daily Caller, whose editor is Tucker Carlson, which reported some horribly gross remarks Mike Tyson made involving sexual violence toward Sara Palin. Carlson added a note to the story indicating that the intent was to demonstrate Tyson's neanderthal mentality. Not good enough for Greta.

So tonight Carlson appeared on Greta's show and it got really heated. Greta's a trial attorney and Carlson is a veteran of CNN's Crossfire program. It wasn't pretty and it resolved nothing. I could see both points of view. I didn't think that the DC was condoning or advocating the demented ravings of Mike Tyson, but I didn't see that they had enough news value to bother reporting on. But what a shoutfest.

Obama's campaign pitch: more of the socialist social justice pitch. The problem with "fair share" appeals is that he decides what's fair, not us. Every kid had an innate sense of what's fair, but when you get down to cases, he's also selfish and greedy. What's fair? That you get to keep what you earn? Yes. That all Americans should pay taxes? Yes. That the taxes should be applied to transfer wealth from the well-to-do to the poor? No.

Sharing a common burden is one thing, but appealing to envy and encouraging greed for the property of others is destructive, divisive and doesn't really help those who receive it because they don't become capable of producing for themselves. They become drones.

Paul Krugman on the Ponzi scheme aspects of Social Security.

Chairman of Congressional Black Caucus: We're all basically racists here.

He said that they'd be marching on the White House if Obama weren't President.

A Washington gaffe: when a politician accidentally says the truth.