Ah, the “War on Terror” has anything ever been more profitable?

Like little children scared about monsters under their beds, DC appears to be in thrall to fears of Invisible Bond Vigilantes. Krugman has been trying to slay these fears with logic and rational argument, but as any parent can tell you, fears like these are irrational and succumb to only one thing: mockery.

As the pressure for a Grand Bargain mounts and screaming about the Invisible Bond Vigilantes rises, let the mockery begin. It’s the only weapon that has a chance of success.

Fifty years ago today, East German soldiers began overseeing the construction of the Berlin Wall. That wall came down in 1989, but as Der Spiegel reminds us, other walls remain elsewhere in the world.

Even more insidious, though, are the invisible walls we build with money and defend with lawyers, all in an attempt to defend the status quo and nail things down as they are right now.

Sorry, but life is like a river, and you can’t nail it down. Count me among those who yearn for life without such walls.

Things were going along pretty well for the Bush Administration Apologists Alumni Association. Sure, they were out of their old offices, but things were good. Obama adopted their wars as his own, the economy has sputtered along long enough to have become (in the public’s mind) at least as much Obama’s fault as theirs (thus the cries of “deficits! deficits! deficits!” from those who launched us into two wars), and most of the BAAAA have landed in cushy lucrative new digs.

Then Obama had to ruin it by getting bin Laden. Suddenly, all the old discussions are back — at least as far as torture goes — and this has at least some of them very worried, like Michael Mukasey.

He should worry. A lot.

American politics has taken a bloody turn. Much of the Right’s agenda is punitive and built upon vengeance against those they have defined as domestic enemies. They seek to disenfranchise their political foes, deny health care to “others,” leave the elderly to die alone in the streets, and abandon public schools so the privileged can use the tax money for their exclusive private schools.

One of my favorite conservative contradictions is how they are so skilled at fearmongering (“OMG the terrorists will kill us all! You must surrender your civil liberties at once!” “OMG the deficit will kill us all! You must surrender your paychecks/pensions/collective bargaining/Social Security/Medicare at once!”), yet when faced with actual threats, they either deny that there’s a problem, or insist that the only solution is to make the problem bigger.

Chickenhawks, while trying to score quick political points with anti-Muslim fearmongering, are playing right into the “trap” Evan Kohlmann described on Monday’s Countdown — fueling the next round of terorist recruitment while destroying the ideals of our country.

The biggest Big Liar on the American scene today is Glenn Beck. Two million Americans watch his show on FOX every day. Many millions more listen to his radio show.

How big a liar are we talking about here? Try this one on for size:

“We will reclaim the civil rights moments — because, dammit, we were the people who did it in the first place.”
— Glenn Beck, May 26, 2010

Gobstopping, isn’t it — how you can just rewrite a dozen of most agonizing, contentious, and important years in American history in one sentence like that? Where do you even begin to set the record straight?

In a shocking turn of events, the Republican Party has fired Osama bin Laden from his long-term position as Chief Fearmonger & Boogeyman. Mr. bin Laden received a letter earlier this afternoon informing him that his services will no longer be required, citing three principal reasons for his dismissal:

Great video — please post to your Facebook wall and RT on Twitter — this needs to go viral

“The moral imperative for our time is clear. Anyone whose guide in public policy is conscience, anyone who argues that faith and religious traditions should direct our actions, such a person must stand for universal health care in America,” Rabbi Fish concluded. “It happens we are all also citizens of Connecticut. That fact leads us to ask you Senator Lieberman, what is it that you stand for?