“The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a class-action sex discrimination lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against Adelphi University, alleging the university pays its full-time female professors less than male professors of similar status doing the same work. … the situation at Adelphi showed a “pattern” of pay disparity among several departments where he said ‘similarly situated males seem to regularly receive more money than the females.’”

“Sunni Arab extremists have begun a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers, other Interior Ministry officials and tribal leaders throughout Iraq, staging at least 10 attacks in 48 hours.”

Arianna Huffington calls Alan Greenspan on his recent attempts to save face with the publication of his memoir, The Age of Turbulence:

Greenspan’s book is another in the growing pile penned by folks who lent their integrity to buttress the Bush presidency but who now, in horrified hindsight, want it back. Now that it’s clear what an unsound strategy investing in George Bush turned out to be, Greenspan wants us to know he was skeptical all along. …

Greenspan says he was disappointed, but, then, what could he really do? He knew the policies were bad, but he was just the Chairman of the Fed. Who would ever pay attention to lil ol’ Alan Greenspan? He also wants us to know that he advised Bush against the GOP’s “out-of-control” spending and that he thinks the Republicans “deserved to lose.” Well, thanks, but that and two bucks will get you a British pound.

The media controversy surrounding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address at Columbia University bolstered the stature of the “increasingly isolated” Iranian leader, empowered American war hawks and betrayed the Bush administration’s “fear of Iran’s rising position as a regional power and its challenge to the American and Israeli status quo.”

Opponents of Ahmadinejad’s Columbia appearance maintain that Columbia provided a terrorist with a platform. They argue that Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier and an anti-Israeli propagandist who sponsors terrorist groups, arms anti-American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is intent on developing a nuclear weapon.

In reality, the critics overstate their case. Despite Ahmadinejad’s dictatorial inclinations and outright misrepresentations, the Iranian leader “is not commander in chief of the Iranian armed forces, has never invaded any other country…has never called for any Israeli civilians to be killed, and allows Iran’s 20,000 Jews to have representation in Parliament.” What’s more, Mohammad ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has been unable to find credible evidence of a nuclear weapons program.

“Iran does not constitute a certain and immediate threat for the international community.” He stressed that no evidence had been found for underground production sites or hidden radioactive substances, and he urged a three-month waiting period before the U.N. Security Council drew negative conclusions.

Moreover, while some Iran munitions are being used against U.S. troops in Iraq, the contention that the Iranian government is formally undermining efforts in Iraq has little grounding in reality:

– Gen. Peter Pace told reporters he has no evidence of any links between the explosives killing Americans and the Iranian government.

– A National Intelligence Estimate released in February concluded that Iranian involvement was “not likely” to be a major driver of violence.

– A recent McClatchy analysis of U.S. casualties in Iraq confirms earlier reports that the great majority of foreign fighters in Iraq are Sunni Saudis, not Iranians.

Still, Washington views Iran’s increased regional influence, (a result of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars) bellicose treatment of Israel and independent streak for negotiating long-term energy deals with [American economic competitors] China and India” as a threat to American influence in the Middle East.

In the past week, American officials have stepped up their rhetoric against Iran; Ahmedinejad’s sensational trip to New York mainstreamed their argument and elevated Ahmadinejad’s “status at home in the region at a time when he is increasingly isolated politically.” And while he was barred from visiting ground zero, “his visit may, however, be ground zero for the next big military struggle of the United States in the Middle East, one that really will make Iraq look like a cakewalk.”

UPDATE: ThinkProgress notes, “during his speech at Columbia University on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outlandishly denied the existence of homosexuality in Iran, saying “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country.” That section of his speech, however, is not included in the transcript posted on Ahmadinejad’s official website.”

The Times of London reports, “Armed riot police reportedly moved into central Rangoon today in an escalation of tensions in Burma’s largest city where Buddhist monks have been leading mass demonstrations against the military Government.”

“The protests began with prayers and peaceful marches carried out by a few hundred Buddhist monks demanding an end to human rights violations, it has spiralled into a mass movement, dubbed the Saffron Revolution, calling for the end of the brutal military regime.”

The Washington Post is reporting that “the Bush administration has conducted a concerted, behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to try to generate opposition to California’s request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, according to documents obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.”

Echoing the position of the auto industry, Transportation Department officials “quietly reached out to two dozen congressional offices and a handful of governors” and urged them adopt a single federal standard for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and sports utility vehicles. California’s more stringent guidelines would “cut greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, by an estimated 25 percent from cars and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles, beginning in 2009.” If California’s bid is approved, “a dozen other states” are prepared to adopt similar emissions standards.

Over the summer, EPA head Steve Johnson filibustered an investigation by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works into whether the Transportation Department had lobbied against the California laws. Johnson repeated “I defer to the Transportation Department,” three times in a row when asked “whether he knew if the Transportation Department was lobbying against a California global warming law.”

The Politico is reporting that the Clinton campaign killed a GQ story about infighting within the campaign by restricting access to President Bill Clinton, who was “slated to appear on the cover of GQ’s December issue.”

A retreat of the sort GQ is alleged to have made is unusual, particularly as part of what sources described as a barely veiled transaction of editorial leverage for access. The Clinton campaign is unique in its ability to provide cash value to the media, and particularly the celebrity-driven precincts of television and magazines. Bill Clinton is a favorite cover figure, because his face is viewed within the magazine industry as one that can move product.

But the nix undermines Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) claim that she will bring change to Washington. In fact, it’s an indication that a new Clinton administration will further restrict media access and embrace President Bush’s record of curtailing media access.

When asked which is harder, playing the president or being the president, politician/lobbyist/actor and incredibly well informed and enthused candidate Fred Thompson replied, “Neither of ‘em are that hard.” Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has more:

It was bad enough when the GOP field was led by a grinning Mormon corporatist and a fascist ex-mayor itching to take his prostate pain out on the world, but Thompson is the worst yet — a human snooze button, campaigning for the head-in-the-sand vote by asking Americans not to think but to change the channel.”

What Thompson inspires is something much more appropriate for Americans of the TV age: He gets audiences purring in a cozy stupor. Their eyes glaze over and they end up looking like a bunch of flies happily lapping up their own puke.”

In his radio address on Sunday, President Bush promised to veto a bipartisan compromise to expand “the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a joint federal-state funding program that provides vital health insurance coverage for children in families whose income levels render them ineligible for either Medicaid or private insurance.

The proposal, which would be financed by “a 61-cent-per-pack increase in the tobacco tax,” boosts “current levels of spending by $35 billion over the next five years” to “expand enrollment from 6.6 million children to about 10 million children.”

In his veto threat, Bush claimed that the bipartisan compromise would “raise taxes on working Americans” and complained that the expansion would add “nonpoor children to the program” and encourage “many to drop private coverage, to go on the government-subsidized program.”

Despite Bush’s claims, “the overwhelming majority of children who would gain health coverage under the emerging agreement are precisely the low-income children the President says he wants to focus on.” A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the SCHIP bill “found that at least 85 percent of the otherwise-uninsured children who would gain coverage under the bill have incomes below states’ current SCHIP eligibility limits;” two-thirds of “those who gain SCHIP coverage…would otherwise be uninsured.”

Since SCHIP needs “14 billion more over the next five years to keep covering current enrollees, let alone reach more of the nation’s nearly 9 million uninsured children,” Bush’s willingness to pony up just $5 billion is “tantamount to a cut.” Bush’s plan of providing “tax breaks for the purchase of private insurance,” would cover less than one-quarter of the uninsured, according to an analysis by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber.

As for the alleged tax increase on cigarettes, a recent study found that “higher state taxes on smokers have produced sharp declines in consumption.” Economist Frank Chaloupka of the University of Illinois predicts that “smoking will drop 6% if the 61-cent-per-pack tax hike is passed.” “I expect a bigger drop than almost anything we’ve seen before,” he says.

When Bush accepted the 2004 GOP nomination for president he promised that “in a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for government health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention, or information, to stand between these children and the health care they need.” Now, Bush has gone back on his word, placing the profits of big tobacco and a conservative fiscal theology ahead of children’s health care and well being.

UPDATE: ThinkProgress notes that Bush is refusing to spend an extra $22 billion on veterans health care, infrastructure improvements, education but plans to ask Congress next week “to approve another massive spending measure — totaling nearly $200 billion — to fund the [Iraq] war through next year.”

Though Mitt Romney says that he wants to bring “innovation and transformation” to Washington, it seems as though he’s perfectly content to stick with the insiders.

Consider Cofer Black, a former senior CIA official who was criticized by the 9/11 Commission for not passing on vital intelligence to the FBI. Today, Black serves as the Vice President of Blackwater USA and as Romney’s senior counter-terrorism adviser and chair of his Counter-Terrorism Advisory Group.

Cofer’s company is the largest private security contractor in Iraq with “close personal and political ties” to the Bush Administration.” Last week, Blackwater contractors were involved in a shooting incident that left eight Iraqis dead, but Cofer shouldn’t worry about hiring a lawyer just yet. An obscure 2004 edict from the Coalition Provisional Authority keeps Blackwater immune from prosecution in Iraq, and the US government has refused to punish Blackwater for its actions (though this might change due to the Iraqi government’s anger about the situation).

Is Romney serious about “change” and “putting our own house in order?” Hiring a counter-terrorism adviser who is a senior executive at a shadowy and corrupt private security contractor seems to indicate that Romney will be more of the same.