As Seth noted earlier, the collapse of former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs co-chairman Jon Corzine’s latest financial venture is the end of his hopes for higher office. But it is more than that. The discovery that $700 million of the money investors put into his MF Global firm is missing is a shocking scandal that highlights liberal hypocrisy as much as it does the excesses of the world of Wall Street high finance.

Corzine is not just another high-flying investment ace that was shot down by bad bets — in this case by his firm’s decision to put customers’ money in European sovereign debt. Such figures are generally associated with the fat cats whom popular culture tells us are all Republicans who finance conservative causes. Corzine was, after all, not just a Democrat but one of the party’s bright hopes just a few years ago and a leading liberal advocate for bigger government as well as, in a touch dripping with irony, for reining in excessive compensation for Wall Street executives. More than just a stereotypical “limousine liberal,” Corzine was a major figure in mobilizing financial support for the Democratic Party, a role that he continued to play even after losing his try for re-election in 2009 to Chris Christie. The White House will try to distance itself from Corzine, but the disgrace of one of his leading bundlers will make it a little harder for Obama to spend the next year wandering the countryside complaining about Republican responsibility for Wall Street greed and income inequality.

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According to this press report, Syria is mining its border with Lebanon in order to prevent Syrians fleeing Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown to flee to safety.

It will be interesting to see whether the United Nations and various New York-based human rights organizations can take time away from bashing Israel in order to condemn—and perhaps reverse—this latest Syrian atrocity against innocent Syrian citizens.

You might think that, however foolish many of the assumptions that govern the modern university’s take on Israel might be, it would be easy to find broad agreement that a professor publicly shouting “death to Israel” is beyond the pale of legitimate debate. Unfortunately, when it comes to Cary Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, you would be wrong.

In an article published yesterday by Inside Higher Ed on Kent State Professor Julio Pino shouting “death to Israel” at a public event on campus with an Israeli diplomat, Nelson is quoted saying:

Calling out a political slogan during a question period falls well within the speech rights of any member of a university community… Expressive outbursts do not substitute for rational analysis, but they have long played a role in our national political life. More surprising, to be sure, is President Lefton’s invention of an absurd form of hospitality: you must not question the moral legitimacy or the right to exist of a guest’s home country. Awareness of history would suggest such challenges are routine elements of international life.

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It will be a shame when the media’s inevitable postmortem of the Jon Huntsman campaign pushes the meme that he was just too moderate and reasonable for the GOP. That’s because his more “liberal” policies are not the reason he never caught on with primary voters.

On the major issues, Huntsman is a fairly conservative candidate. It’s true that he has deviated on foreign policy, calling for a steep withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. In past cycles, however, this would have been more salient than this year, when other candidates have at least hinted at what Huntsman has made a key component of his platform. His belief in anthropogenic global warming isn’t nearly as offensive to conservatives as the media likes to pretend it is. Regardless of where the majority of GOP primary voters stand on the issue, global warming simply isn’t going to decide who gets the nomination. So why, then, do voters find Huntsman so distasteful?

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Many of Obama’s supporters are applauding the President’s decision to walk away from negotiations to cement a long-term relationship between Iraq and the United States. All it takes is a quick glance at any number of left-wing or Democratic Party organs to see the deeply embedded belief that Iraq’s liberation was born in original sin, and that the best course of U.S. action was simply to sever links and put the memory of the Iraq campaign behind us.

This is unfortunate. The United States has made many mistakes in Iraq, though the decisions to oust Saddam and liberate Iraqis were not among them. Still, despite all the errors, Iraq and the United States should have enjoyed a partnership for decades to come, much like the United States enjoys with South Korea. Alas, for too many progressives, Iraqis have become chits to play in a Washington-based political game. Too many on the left would rather see Iraqis fall victim to Islamist insurgents or pro-Iranian militias than do anything to prevent that outcome, all so that they can condemn Bush’s actions.

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I’ll leave it to Herman Cain to get his story straight. His campaign and he personally have not handled this incident well at all and obviously the Cain campaign is still largely an amateur affair. They badly need a crash course in political public relations 101.

But one thing should be pointed out: the fact that a settlement was made in no way indicates anything about the guilt or innocence of the accused party, especially if it’s for a small amount, effectively severance pay, such as Cain says was the case here.
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Occupy Iowa activists are apparently irritated that politicians don’t seem to be taking their opinions seriously. And so they’re calling on their supporters to flood all 99 districts counties of Iowa during the upcoming caucuses.

No, not to participate – instead they’re planning to “shut down” the local headquarters of the presidential candidates.  Democracy: You’re doing it wrong.

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Over the past several months, the Turkish government has become increasingly antagonistic to the United States and its allies, most notably redoubling its embrace of Hamas, and threatening to use military force against both Israel and Cyprus. Turkey refuses to accept a universal definition of terrorism, and instead argues that terrorism perpetrated against the Jewish state is legitimate. Egemen Bağış, a minister and close aide to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has gone so far as to suggest that Al Qaeda is not Turkey’s concern.

Rather than let Erdoğan know that incitement, anti-American rhetoric, embrace of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and legitimization of terrorist groups has a cost, President Obama has instead decided to provide our most advanced military technology to Turkey. Late last week, the White House formally notified Congress of the Obama administration’s intention to supply Turkey with cutting edge military technology. Turkey says it wants Super Cobra Helicopters and Predators to fight Kurdish terrorists, but given Turkey’s threats to Israel and Cyprus, Congress must exercise its oversight.

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The solution most Americans want to see to prevent teacher layoffs? Cutting state and local spending, not an additional infusion of federal money:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of Americans think the federal government should give states and localities $35 billion to prevent such layoffs. Nearly three times as many adults (64%) believe that the best way for state and local governments to avoid these layoffs is to cut back on other spending. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

This is a sign that Americans aren’t buying the way Democrats have disingenuously framed the debate.

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If the Islamic Republic of Iran has one trait that worries me, it is overconfidence. After all, wars in the Middle East are caused not by oil or water, but rather by one side fundamentally underestimating the capacity of its adversary to respond. That was the case, for example, with the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War. After that conflict, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah commented that had he known how Israel would have reacted, he never would have launched the cross border operation to kidnap the Israelis in the first place.

Sometimes that overconfidence can have a silver-lining, however.

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Jon Corzine has made a career of risky bets, but it turns out his riskiest move was betting on himself. In August, Corzine–then chief of the commodities giant MF Global–sold investors debt, the interest on which Corzine promised would be raised one point if President Obama appointed him to a federal job.

It’s exactly the kind of arrogance mixed with recklessness that got Corzine and his investors in the trouble that was revealed over the course of last week. First we learned that under Corzine’s directorship, MF Global was going bankrupt because it purchased Europe’s risky debt. Then several companies each expressed interest in buying parts of MF Global–only to find that the books were worse than they looked, and that no part of the company was salvageable. But yesterday’s news was far worse. It turns out that $700 million of MF Global investors’ money is missing, and the firm is being investigated to find out if Corzine skimmed investors’ own money to cover his bets:

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Thanks to the invaluable work of MEMRI, we can watch Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declare, in an October 23 interview with Egyptian television, a clarifying statement: “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Abbas said. “I will never recognize the Jewishness of the state, or a ‘Jewish state.’”

We’re repeatedly told that the issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are enormously complicated, solvable only by diplomats of unusual skill and ability, and that Israel, always Israel, must take a “chance for peace.” But in its most important respects this conflict, at its core,  is quite simple: the Palestinians have yet to make their own inner peace with the existence of a Jewish state. Every failed effort at peace, beginning before Oslo and to this very day, can be traced back to this fundamental truth. Because it is an unpleasant one, many people in the West have simply refused to accept it. It is too unsettling to their premises and presuppositions. And so they proceed in self-deception, demanding that Israel make concessions with a “peace partner” that is, in fact, an implacable and lethal enemy.

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Conservatives are used to getting unfairly maligned by the media, so it’s understandable that some would want to jump to Herman Cain’s defense over the sexual harassment allegations. But some of the media bias defenses are starting to become incoherent.

Initially, the complaint was that Politico’s story was too thinly sourced to publish. That may have been the case. But now that Cain has pretty much confirmed everything that Politico wrote, the bias argument is irrelevant.

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The Iraqi Kurds have prided themselves on being America’s allies throughout the Iraq war and its aftermath. Repeatedly, regional leader Masud Barzani told visiting American generals and dignitaries that the Kurdish region was the most pro-American in Iraq.

The Kurdish authorities, however, have never made ideological alliances, but are the ultimate realists: Barzani forms partnerships with whomever he believes can most fulfill his own interests. With the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, it is clear that anyone with an ounce of self-preservation is rushing to cut deals with the Iran. After all, the most common Iranian influence theme, Iraqi politicians say, is that “You may like the Americans better, but we will always be your neighbors.” Hence, on October 29, Barzani traveled to Iran where, on Sunday, he warmly embraced both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to press reports, Barzani declared, “We will not forget the assistance of the Iranian people and government during the hard times passed by Iraq. To preserve our victory we need Iranian assistance and guidance….”

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South African Judge Richard Goldstone did a great deal of damage to Israel by lending his name to a bias United Nations commission that put forth a litany of slanders aimed at Israel last year. But the reaction to that UN effort to delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense against Gaza-based terrorists sobered him up and he publicly recanted his support for the report that bore his name earlier this year. That was a bitter blow to the left that had been happy to use him as a shield against charges of anti-Semitism and he was widely accused of having given in to pressure from a Jewish community that had lambasted him for his actions.

Even the most earnest apology couldn’t have undone all the harm his UN report filled with false accusations of war crimes had done. But, to his credit, Goldstone is using the notoriety that he has to make up for his past lapses. In today’s New York Times Goldstone is able to use his standing, as a South African to shoot down the pernicious slander that Israel is an apartheid state.

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It seems only a year or so ago it was treated like a big deal when rockets from Gaza reached the major southern Israeli cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod, or Beersheba. Today, it’s more like the weather, and treated as such by the international press. This presents both challenges and opportunities for Israel advocates.

It may be comforting to trot out the old anti-Israelist stereotypes (in this case, chiefly that attacks on Israeli civilians are an understandable form of “resistance”). While they play at least some role, it must also be acknowledged that the repetition of these kinds of attacks deadens the world’s attention span.

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Diplomats and international officials are wringing their hands now that the United States has, as mandated by U.S. law, cut off funding to UNESCO because it admitted Palestine as a full member. On October 24, Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO, published a letter in The Washington Post speaking about how the Washington’s actions would imperil UNESCO’s work:

UNESCO supports many causes in line with U.S. security interests. In Afghanistan and Iraq, we are helping governments and communities prepare for life after the withdrawal of U.S. military forces. We are bolstering the literacy of the Afghan National Police and are leading the country’s largest education program, reaching some 600,000 learners in 18 provinces. We work with the United States to advance democratic freedoms. Mandated to promote freedom of expression, UNESCO stands up for every journalist attacked or killed across the world. In Tunisia and Egypt, we are leading education reform and training journalists. We target the causes of violent extremism by training teachers in human rights and Holocaust remembrance.

Predictably, many on the Left are seizing upon UNESCO’s self-affirmation to suggest that the end does not justify the means, and that the U.S. government should not hold UNESCO accountable for its actions. The problem with these arguments is the woeful inefficiency of UN programs, regardless of their noble aims.

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