Angelina Jolie Blasts United Nations for Inaction on Wartime Sex Crimes

At WaPo, "Angelina Jolie makes debut before UN’s most powerful body to urge an end to rape in war."

ADDED: From London's Daily Mail, "'This horror must end': Defiant Angelina Jolie suits up as she urges world leaders to combat warzone rape during impassioned appeal before U.N. Security Council."

Some Afternoon Heidi Klum

She keeps in shape, via Twitter:

I'm back running! #HKNB pic.twitter.com/ICUMlgsLnm

— Heidi Klum (@heidiklum) June 23, 2013

And at Egotastic!, "Heidi Klum Braless in the Park."

Supreme Court Punts in Fisher v. University of Texas

Recent analyses of the Court have stressed Chief Justice John Roberts' efforts to position the Court as a restrained judicial institution, and not an activist political one.

That said, this ruling may be more significant than meets the eye.

Background at the New York Times, "Justices Send Affirmative Action Case to Lower Court":

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ordered lower courts to take a fresh look, under a more demanding standard, at the race-conscious admissions policy used to admit students to the University of Texas. The 7-to-1 decision was simultaneously modest and significant, and its recalibration of how courts review the constitutionality of affirmative action programs is likely to give rise to a wave of challenges to admissions programs at colleges and universities nationwide.

The brief decision, issued eight months after the case was argued, was almost surely the product of intense negotation among the justices. The compromise they reached was at least a reprieve for affirmative action in higher education, and civil rights groups that had feared for the future of race-conscious admission programs breathed a sigh of relief.

For now, the Texas program and other affirmative action programs can continue without changes.

The decision did not disturb the Supreme Court’s general approach to affirmative action in admissions decisions, saying that educational diversity is a government interest sufficient to overcome the general ban on racial classifications by the government. But the court added that public institutions must have good reasons to use the particular means they use to achieve that goal.

That requirement could endanger the Texas program when it is reconsidered by the federal appeals court in New Orleans. The program admits most students under race-neutral criteria, accepting all students in the state who graduate near the top of their high school classes. But the university also uses a race-conscious system as a supplement.

“Strict scrutiny,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, “does not permit a court to accept a school’s assertion that its admissions process uses race in a permissible way without closely examining how the process works in practice.”

Courts reviewing affirmative action programs must, he wrote, “verify that it is necessary for a university to use race to achieve the educational benefits of diversity.” That requires, he said, “a careful judicial inquiry into whether a university could achieve sufficient diversity without using racial classifications.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who announced her lone dissent from the bench, said the race-neutral part of the Texas program worked only because of “de facto racial segregation in Texas’s neighborhoods and schools.” She said she would have upheld the appeals court decision endorsing the entire admissions program.

The remaining justices, including ones friendly and hostile to affirmative action, agreed on a middle ground, though Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas each issued dissents indicating that they would vote to strike down race-conscious admission plans in a future case.

RTWT.

Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stephens were in the courtroom today. Interesting.

More at Memeorandum.

And William Jacobson has a roundup, "Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision," and Ilya Somin, at Volokh, "Competing Interpretations of Fisher." (That's a must read.)

Also, Amy Howe at SCOTUS Blog, "Finally! The Fisher decision in Plain English."

Plus lots at Althouse, "'It offends me that the court failed to exert any kind of leadership with this decision'," and "'There is disagreement about whether Grutter was consistent with the principles of equal protection.... But the parties here do not ask the Court to revisit that aspect of Grutter’s holding'."

More from Althouse, "The worst forms of racial discrimination in this Nation have always been accompanied by straight-faced representations that discrimination helped minorities'," and "'If you think that you can think about a thing inextricably attached to something else without thinking of the thing which it is attached to, then you have a legal mind'."

Here's a whiny piece, from S. Mitra Kalita analysis at Quartz, "The Supreme Court sent the Fisher case back, but make no mistake: Affirmative action is dead." And from Richard Kahlenberg, at Slate, "The Next Affirmative Action?"

Shop Amazon

Consider Deneen Borelli, Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation.

Or click on the banner to shop around.

MSNBC Broadcasts F-Bombs During Zimmerman Trial Coverage

This is funny.

At Twitchy, "‘F’ is for flub: MSNBC apologizes after airing Zimmerman trial F-bombs; Returns viewers to another F-bomb."

The f-bombs were flying even after Chuck Todd announced the network would go with a 7-second delay.

Child Chained Up and Forced to Watch Parents Murdered by Obama-Backed Syrian Rebels

At Atlas Shrugs, "SYRIAN CHILD TIED UP IN CHAINS AND FORCED TO WATCH THE MURDER OF HER PARENTS BY OBAMA BACKED JIHADISTS":

According to Syrian Truth’s Facebook page, the above photo is of a toddler living in the Deir ez-Zor Governate in eastern Syria, bordering Iraq. She was tied up by members of the U.S.-supported “Free Syrian Army” — which is dominated by foreign, Sunni jihadis — and made to watch as her mother and father were killed for being Shia. Here is how the Obama administration is using your tax dollars — mockingly in the name of “freedom.”

Snowden Flees to Moscow, Asks Ecuador for Asylum

At the Wall Street Journal, "Snowden on the Run: Leaker Flees Hong Kong for Moscow, Asks Ecuador for Asylum."

! "In part, Mr. Snowden's determination to leave Hong Kong was based on the fear of losing access to the Internet" http://t.co/eBdqUMD1HX
— Emily Parker (@emilydparker) June 24, 2013

Taliban Kill 10 Tourists in Pakistan

They were mountaineers.

At USA Today, "Taliban kill 10 foreign climbers, Pakistani guide."

There's going to be a lot more of these killings as the U.S. heads for the exits in Afghanistan.

South Texas Sees Increase in Illegal Immigrant Deaths

Now this is a bit more realistic for the Los Angeles Times, "Border crossers face high risk in South Texas":

FALFURRIAS, Texas — The South Texas sun had scorched the woman's face. Flies swarmed over her lips. Under a nearby mesquite plant, a plastic water jug lay empty.

Brooks County Chief Deputy Sheriff Urbino Martinez picked it up and walked back to a group of officials gathered around the sprawled body of the dead migrant.

"She got left behind for some reason," he said. "Either she got ill or she just got tired and they left her, knowing very well she wasn't going to get out of this area."

Justice of the Peace Roel Villarreal noticed that the woman's pants were pulled down around her hips, and her shirt was wrapped over her shoulders — signs of the woman's desperate struggle to cool down, he said.

"When it's damn hot, that's what you do before you die," Villarreal said.

Across the desert expanses of California and Arizona, thousands have perished over the years while attempting to cross illegally into the United States. Now another region, this one in Texas, has become a lethal magnet for increasing numbers of migrants.

Many of these deaths occur as they try to make it through the vast ranch lands that surround a Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281, some 70 miles north of the border. It is the last obstacle for migrants trying to get to Houston, so they attempt to go around it by the hundreds every night.

The Rio Grande Valley recently surpassed the Tucson sector as the area with the most migrant arrests. The surging traffic has besieged border agents at the once-relatively tranquil checkpoint near the small town of Falfurrias. It also illuminates one of the major obstacles to a comprehensive immigration overhaul being debated in the Senate.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who visited the region in May, has expressed reluctance to support any bill that would not guarantee a 90% arrest rate of all illegal crossers, including a proposal unveiled Thursday that would double the size of the Border Patrol. He has cited the growing death count as evidence that the border remains out of control at the southern tip of Texas.

"As a policymaker, I have a responsibility to find real solutions to these issues that are all too familiar to Texans," Cornyn wrote in an op-ed published by Fox News. "Anything less only perpetuates this grotesque human tragedy playing out every day on American soil."

Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "L.A. Times Pooh-Poohs Border Security."

Bush Official Defends Obama on #NSA Scandal

That would be Marc Thiessen, who is interviewed by Lee Stranahan at Big Government:

Theissen has been a passionate defender of the NSA and the programs exposed by former contractor Edward Snowden. He believes that conservative critics of the NSA need to pause and reconsider their attacks. He points out the PRISM program that's been the subject of much controversy was put into place by the Bush Administration and has been widely mis-characterized.

In an exclusive interview, he told Breitbart News "Programs like this are the only thing we have to protect us from terror. There are three ways to stop terrorists from carrying out an attack: interrogation, infiltration and interception. We've stopped interrogations. Infiltration has proven incredibly hard with these groups. So we're left with interception; using information to try and keep the worst from happening."

Theissen's assessment of the importance of PRISM is blunt: "If we lose this, we're blind."

RTWT.

I agree with him completely.

PREVIOUSLY: "Yes, Publishing #NSA Secrets Is a Crime."

Sen. Mike Lee Slams 1,200 Page Immigration Reform Clusterf-k

At Fox News, "Senators tout 70 votes for immigration reform as Paul predicts bill already 'dead' in House."

Lee remains steadfast that passing the roughly 1,200-page bill is a mistake. He continues to argue that Congress should take a more step-by-step approach, starting with further securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It could take years to implement the border-security measures,” he said.

Lee said the lawmakers crafted the bill with the “best intentions” but failed.

“They said it is tough and fair, but it’s neither,” he said.

The bill would provide a years-long path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants now living in the U.S.

Lee was joined on Fox by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Gang of Eight. “We are very, very close,” Graham said. “The amendment gets us over the top.”

The West's Capitulation in Afghanistan

An analysis by Christoph Sydow, at Der Spiegel, "U.S.-Taliban Talks in Doha":

After 12 years of war and thousands of deaths on both sides, the US and the Taliban are finally ready to talk peace. While the West hopes to smooth its withdrawal, human rights organizations forecast the return of dark times for women and minorities.

In April 2007, Kurt Beck, then the head of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), suggested that there should be a peace conference for Afghanistan that would include all of the relevant groups, including the Taliban. The idea earned him nothing but scorn. Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives vented their ire, and Rangin Spanta, Afghanistan's foreign minister at the time, went so far as to brand Beck clueless.

But now, six years later, Beck's idea is actually being implemented. On Tuesday, the Taliban held an opening celebration for its new office in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The Islamists want to host peace negotiations there with the Afghan government and the White House. Afghan President Hamid Karzai remains coy on the issue, but talks between the Taliban and the US government are supposed to kick off within the next few days.

The parties to the conflict have already been holding secret talks for some years, and representatives have also met in Germany on several occasions. But now, for the first time since the beginning of international military intervention in the Hindu Kush in 2001, the Taliban will take an official seat at the negotiation table. The extremists had refused to participate in any of the previous Afghanistan conferences, which have been held at irregular intervals.

Can There Be a 'Moderate Taliban'?

But now things have changed. The United States and its allies are planning a semi-orderly withdraw of combat troops from the troubled country. At the same time that the Taliban opened its office in Doha, Karzai announced that the Afghan army had officially taken over responsibility for security in the entire country from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan. By the end of 2014, almost 100,000 foreign soldiers are supposed to have pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving only military trainers behind.

NATO countries hope that they can at least leave behind a country that isn't steeped in chaos. In 2001, the West set lofty goals for Afghanistan, including implementing democracy, safeguarding human rights and fostering responsible governance. But the states contributing forces to ISAF gave up on achieving such goals long ago. The United States has signalled that the Taliban will be allowed to do what it wants as long as it refrains from allowing international terrorists to seek refuge in the areas it controls.

The oft-expressed distinction between "moderate" and "radical" Taliban elements straddles precisely this border. On the one side, there are the Taliban members who want to usher in a global Islamic empire with the help of al-Qaida. On the other are those who would be satisfied with ruling in Kabul.

What unites both groups is their disregard for the rights of women and minorities. Human Rights Watch is already painting a grim picture of the future of women's rights in the country, and Amnesty International is complaining about extensive violations of human rights. In its annual report, the latter said that women and girls are already being subjected to particular and repeated violence.

No, there's no "moderate" Taliban. Things are going to turn out badly.

Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Afghanistan: Obama Surrenders."

Return of Lui Seeks to Restore 'à la Française' to Men's Magazine Market

This is interesting.

A combination of soft-porn and intellectualism?

That kind of stuff is out of style in our hyper-PC political culture.

At London's Daily Mail, "France revives Lui, the sixties magazine which combined soft-porn with articles aimed at intellectuals."

And Natassja Kinski at the link? Oh là là!

Nik Wallenda Survives Tightrope Walk Over Gorge Near Grand Canyon

I didn't like the daredevil view camera, looking down toward the canyon floor. That was making me queazy.

 In any case, at LAT, "Wallenda walks wire near Grand Canyon."

West Coast Hooters 2013 Swimsuit Finals in Santa Ana

Here's more of the Hooters girls.

And see Daley Gator for more, "Your Sunday Night Salute to Great Blogs and Hooters Girls."

PREVIOUSLY: "Hooters Girls of Orange County."

Waiting on Proposition 8 and DOMA Decisions: In Plain English

From Amy Howe, at SCOTUS Blog:

The fate of California’s Proposition 8, before the Court in Hollingsworth v. Perry, seems murkier than DOMA’s. Proposition 8 was a response to a 2008 decision by the California Supreme Court ordering the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Before the end of that year, California voters had passed Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage. A few months later, Boies and Olson filed a lawsuit challenging the ban on behalf of two same-sex couples who wanted to get married. (My earlier “Plain English” posts on the case are available here, here, here, and here.)

The sponsors of Proposition 8 defended it in court, because the State of California refused. The two couples prevailed in the federal trial court and then in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with the latter holding that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional because it took the previously granted right to marry away from gays and lesbians just because people didn’t like them.

There is a threshold question of “standing” that piqued the interest of several Justices – the Chief Justice and the Court’s four more liberal Justices in particular – who seemed inclined at oral argument to hold that the sponsors of Proposition 8 lacked the legal right to defend it in court. Justice Kennedy, who had recently suggested that the Court was deciding too many hot-button issues that should be decided by the legislature instead, seemed skeptical about a potential problem with the sponsors’ “standing” but offered another path to avoid deciding whether Proposition 8 violates the Constitution: the Court could simply dismiss the case on the ground that it had made a mistake in taking it on.

Pretty straightforward review. More at that top link.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Supreme Court's Blockbuster Week Ahead."

The Supreme Court's Blockbuster Week Ahead

Well, it could be blockbuster, if the Court were to strike down affirmative action at the University of Texas, and especially if the Court were to uphold DOMA and Prop.8. But either way, the rulings expected this week will have deep political repercussions. And I'm not optimistic toward any big conservative rulings, especially with Anthony Kennedy likely to be the swing vote on some of these cases, but we'll see.

In any event, here's some analysis at the Los Angeles Times, "Supreme Court decisions test chief justice's moderate approach," and at the New York Times, "Supreme Court Weighs Cases Redefining Legal Equality."

I'll be doing some legal blogging throughout the week. I've been waiting over four years for some kinda resolution on Prop. 8, especially. Weird.

Added, from Twitter:

"Equality" always means whatever liberals say it means. http://t.co/cyx95AE7GY @jamestaranto @instapundit

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) June 24, 2013

Lee Stranahan Rips Glenn Greenwald — And His Sycophants on Left and Right

On Twitter today:

"I don't want to live in a country where you're spied on all the time" said the guy who fled to Russia.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

I hope we use the PRISM program to track Snowden down.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Conservatives have been manipulated into defending Snowden. Now he's on a world tour giving away America's state secrets. Not. Good.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

ICYMI MUST READ : Bush Official Defends Obama on NSA Scandal http://t.co/NMwncbyXno via @BreitbartNews

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Some conservatives better man up on the NSA thing quickly and admit they got played. They let hatred of Obama cause them to lose judgment.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Because the real NSA scandal is turning into how many conservatives have been supporting or distracting from Snowden's acts.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

@AmPowerBlog But you know what I'm talking about...

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

If you hate America and love the idea of it being at risk, Snowden is your guy. So is Greenwald. If you don't hate America, you bet wrong.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Snowden is no friend to the U.S. Constitution. Full. Stop. If believe that and you're conservative, you've been played. Wake up.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

If you're a radical lefist or libertarian anti-war type, I totally understand why you idolize or excuse Snowden and Greenwald. Carry on.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Should be pointed out : Greenwald's bullying has put off many liberals for years now; but his bullying works. People afraid to speck up.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

So Greenwald took advantages of liberals afraid to challenge him and conservatives in full Obama scandal mode for this timing on this.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Even Time's Joe Klein has been forced to back down from his harsh (and accurate) 2009 criticism of Greenwald to lame tame critique

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

And when conservatives say "I don't care about Snowden's motivation' you sound JUST LIKE ends-justify-the-means leftists. Stop it or switch.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Oh, wait -- maybe ignoring Snowden is part of some sort of conservative outreach to traitors. Get Sen. Rubio on the phone!

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

There is no NSA scandal. This is what happens when you follow the 'News Cycle'; a cycle driven by the left. Wake up, conservative media.

— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 23, 2013

Rule 5 Sunday

I'm watching baseball all day. Lots of blogging throughout the day.


Meanwhile, here's some babe blogging, via Wirecutter.

And at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is a super awesome non-fossil fueled bike, you might just be a Warmist." And the Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup is not loading for me, so just click on the homepage for the goodness.

Also, at Pitsnipes and Gripes, "Tiffani Amber Thiessen." Plus the Right Way has "Friday Babe."

And at Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Pretty Girls on a Thursday, Booth Babes Edition."

And at Drunken Stepfather, "CHRISSY TEIGAN IS NUDE IN GQ OF THE DAY."

From Animal Magnetism, "Animal’s Rule Five News." And at Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 Saturday: Miriam Gonzalez."

More at Proof Positive, "See, "Best of the Web* Linkaround," and "Friday Night Babe – Odette Annable!"

Now at 90 Miles From Tyranny, "Marilyn Monroe - In Pictures," and "Morning Mistress."

Soylent Green has hot "OverNighty: Rebecca," and "Afternooner Twofer."

Plus, at Dana Pico's, "Rule 5 Blogging: Mostly Marines."

At Egotastic!, "Lais Ribeiro Bikini Pictures Drop So Much Sexy in Miami, the Ground Shakes."

Also from EBL, "Paula Deen Nude Rule 5 Insane Democrat Edition."

And from the source of our tribulations, "Rule 5 Sunday: Father’s Day."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

And see Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – All Ears." More at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Night Funnies."

Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.