Today in Republican Scandals

1. Salon ties the two Republican frontrunners into a single scandal:

“Follow the money” is an elementary rule for understanding American politics, and in the case of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the money trail leads to a case of apparent money laundering that involves his Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney and a $1 million contribution from the same Texas tycoon who bankrolled the “Swift Boat” attacks against the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry

2. MSNBC lets us know about a forthcoming Bloomberg report that could reveal a very un-American deal from huge teabagger funders:

Koch Industries, the company controlled by GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch, sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran in an end-run around a trade ban and cheated the government out of nearly 2 million barrels of oil from federal lands, according to a blockbuster report in the November issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine.

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Republican NJ mayor won’t resign over ‘Rentboy’ scandal, alleged underwear pics

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Bachmann: My ‘flat tax’ would have ‘not one but several rates’

By Andrew Jones
Sunday, October 30, 2011

Another day, another peculiar statement from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

When asked by ABC’s This Week host Christiane Amanpour about what her tax plan would be, the congresswoman said that she would implement a flat tax. But while discussing her plan, Bachmann seemed to not understand what exactly a “flat tax” is.

“I would flatten the rates and simplify them, I would not have just one rate, but I’ll have several rates,” she said. “A flattened, simple, much fairer system, and one that would be equitable and raise revenues for the federal government as well.”

WATCH: Video From ABC News, which appeared on October 30, 2011 (Preferably Skip to 12:06 mark).


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Women Who Raped 17 Men Wanted More Than Just Sex

Admit it -- when you hear the term serial rapist, you tend to picture a man, right? But in Zimbabwe, a trio of women in their 20s are being charged for sex attacks of 17 men.

When their car was involved in an accident on Friday, police found the women -- Rosemary Chakwizira, 24, Sophie Nhokwara, 26, and her sister, Netsai Nhokwara, 24 -- had a stash of 33 condoms containing semen. Ughhhh. I know!

It seems the women had been targeting male hitchhikers over the past two years, either giving them a drink with a tranquilizer or raping them at gunpoint. Terrifying! And 17 men have come forward to positively identify the three women as having raped them, so it's not just like one or two guys are telling some cockamamie story. Yeeesh. At first glimpse, you might think these women are a.) out of their minds and committed these rapes as a string of senseless acts, or b.) one of them was a totally wacko ringleader forcing the other two to go along for the ride.

But, I'm not so sure. It seems like they all had an ulterior motive.
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Credit union flap may reveal Goldman Sachs is bullying community banks

By Muriel Kane
Friday, October 28, 2011

When it was announced recently that Goldman Sachs had withdrawn its sponsorship of the small community bank at which Occupy Wall Street had set up an account for its donations, it appeared to be merely a petty act of vindictiveness.

According to investigative reporter Greg Palast, however, the motivations go much deeper and may involve that Goldman Sachs is misusing TARP bailout funds as a “political weapon” to bully smaller banks.

Rachel Maddow: That’s enough of Paul Wolfowitz

By Roxanne Cooper
Saturday, October 29, 2011

Why is Paul Wolfowitz being treated by the media as if he still any credibility on U.S. foreign policy? On Friday night, Rachel Maddow launched into an epic rant about his latest piece in Foreign Policy Magazine.

“If you were an architect of the Iraq war, you don’t ever get an opportunity to talk about what’s a good idea for war ever again,” Maddow said.

She then castigated the entire Bush administration for being wrong about Iraq. “I’m sorry, when it comes to war in this country, you had your chance. Blew it. No. Wrong.”

She continued, “You are not going to be consulted on the next big idea since you got the last one so wrong. Take up another hobby. Try to convince us to listen to your big ideas on some other subject. Confess before the cleric of your choosing. But war advice? No. Seriously, you went looking for a plan for Afghanistan and for that plan, you went looking to Paul Wolfowitz? The answer is no, no, no. Ten years of hell, No. Not again.”

Watch the full segment below, originally uploaded by MSNBC on October 28, 2011.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Maher panel rips GOP strategist for not admitting Iraq invasion was ‘wrong’

Republican strategist (and Bush/Cheney loyalist) Ron Christie appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher‘s panel discussion Friday evening, and still couldn’t admit that invading Iraq was a wrong decision.

That steadfastness by Christie prompted Princeton professor Cornell West to repeatedly ask, “Were your wrong, were you wrong?”

Former CNN correspondent also had his criticism set for Christie’s hypocrisy of questioning President Obama’s influence in Libya, asking, “Why didn’t you ask that during the Bush administration?”

WATCH: Video from HBO, which was broadcasted on October 28, 2011 (Preferably skip to 4:20).