FLAIT

As this blog has shown, conservatives and conservatism can be proven wrong over and over again, but the one time something happens that vindicates their side of an issue, they turn it into New Year's Eve. It would be like the 1962 Mets breaking out the champagne and having a parade every time they won a game.

But I guess if I was "vindicated" once out of every 10 100 200 500 1000 times, I'd make a big deal out of it too. Take for instance the elections in Iraq that were used to justify a disastrous war that should never have been fought, and the 2010 snow storms that were used to mock Al Gore and global warming.

And then there's times that "being right" is the result of just making stuff up; such as the emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit that the right took out of context to show that global warming is a hoax.

Now, the right is saying that were it not for torture, Osama bin laden wouldn't have been located and killed. "You see? Torture worked! We were right and you bleeding heart liberals were wrong! Na-na-na-na-na-na!"

A few things. That's not true (also here, here, here, here, here, here). Torture did not lead to bin Laden's location (if it did, George Bush would have captured/killed bin Laden years ago).

But even if torture did lead to bin Laden's location, it A) would have been one of the few times, if any, that torture worked, and B) still wouldn't justify torture.

Also, as Glenn Greenwald points out, "there are far more effective ways to extract the truth from someone than by torturing it out of them." In other words, information could be learned through legal, non-tortuous 21st century techniques. But that takes intellect. Torture only takes ignorance.

So despite torture being wrong, ignorant and a colossal waste of time and resources, the right is constantly, and desperately, trying to prove that it works. So this is just another example of the right trumpeting one instance - an instance that isn't even true - of conservatives "being right."

If conservatives think they're always right, why do they make such a big deal out it the one time something (they make up) vindicates them? Why are Republicans proven wrong, liars, or both, all the time?

You know, maybe if George Bush didn't waste so much time torturing prisoners who didn't know much of anything anyway, and didn't go off on a wild goose chase in Iraq, and instead took a more practical and wiser approach (insert laughter here), bin Laden could have been found with old fashioned police and intelligence work a long time ago. But that brings me to my next point.

As this blog has proven, the Republican "Party" has made a political living on nothing but a mountain of lies, spin, fear, hate, bullying, hypocrisy and propaganda. And this is another time where their spin, lies and hypocrisy gets them all twisted into knots.

In March of 2002, George Bush said he was "not concerned" about bin Laden. And in 2005, he closed the C.I.A. unit that was focused on tracking bin Laden down. So Bush wasn't even trying to capture or kill bin Laden. And what was the reaction from the right about this? Crickets. Not a peep of outrage or anger.

What we can take from the right's passive reaction to Bush's soft on bin Laden approach is that capturing or killing him wasn't a priority at all. Therefore, how can conservatives now brag that "torture worked" in getting bin Laden?

But the GOP had to do that because they knew Obama would get a nice bounce in his poll numbers for killing bin Laden and they had to keep it to a minimum. So they put a damper on it by trying to make sure Bush got some of the credit.

Yup, Bush couldn't care less about getting bin Laden, and didn't even try, but the right wants to give him credit for it.

But this is what happens when you're a cult masquerading as a political party that obviously has zero intention of governing responsibly. It forces them into a perpetual cycle of lies, spin and hypocrisy that is so twisted, it sometimes turns them into bleeding heart Commie pinko liberals.

Note: My views or torture can be found here.

June 11 insert:

This is another good example.

Despite numerous think tanks and the Congressional budget office saying otherwise, the right made a big deal about a consulting company study claiming that because of the new health care legislation, 30% of employers would stop giving health insurance to their workers.

Problem was, as Greg Sargent via Paul Krugman points out:

McKinsey’s finding is at odds with many other studies — and the company did not release key portions of the study’s methodology, making it impossible to evaluate the study’s validity.

So when the left is right, over and over and over and over again, it's not news and none of it counts. But the one time the right can trumpet one of their "studies" - just one - that had all the credibility of a three dollar bill, well, "You see? 'Obamacare' won't work! We told you so! Na-na-na-na-na-na..."