Ronald Reagan’s presidency began with the Iranian hostage release, but real men never negotiate with terrorists. Reagan tried to eliminate nuclear weapons with Gorby, but Obama’s a big girl for trying the same thing. St Ronnie imposed the largest tax increases in America’s history, but tax cuts are bad.

Tear down this myth!

I really like how you drop your Marine service in a coupla questions early and then, later, ask these chickenhawks why they didn’t serve. Are they serving their country by making white rapper videos?

Not really.

Thanks, Mike.

Great job. I like the way you handled this. Keep the good work up,

the problem is that all of the young cons I’ve met are also theocons: the fundie children of prosperous fundies and LDSers. Their faith makes them true believers… yes, of course they’re also entitled frat boys and sorority girls, if you like, but their identity as Christians comes first. This makes them tougher nuts to crack than cynical battlers and the trust fund children of values-free fiscalists.

excellent. thank you mike

I like Mike Stark more and more and as an aside, my gaydar was SCREAMING when those two were on camera.

They could always sign on with Blackwater. Fits the modern-day Crusader requirements, and has the added benefits that wife-swapping and Iraqi target practice provide.

I just left this a coupla threads back and applies here also:

Mike, You’re really doing a good job. It’s been fun to watch you develop into this role and hopefully you’ll continue learning. It’s important to stay cool like that. If it ever turns into a shouting match, it’s then easy for them to dismiss and marginalize you, so this was perfect!

Brett’s great too!

I’ve always dreamed that this kind of muckraking is what would happen with the New Media, so that it becomes a fulltime job for people like y’all. It’s up to us readers through donations/subscriptions and word-of-mouth marketing to make this a reality. It’s all available to us. We just gotta make it happen.
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Thank you, bonkers. We appreciate it.

Mike and Brett are doing an amazing job.

What about Sarah Palin?

Check out this clip of Mike Allen, from Politico, talking about how Sarah Palin dictated the terms of their interview.

Also, this is a hilarious article about Palin and her so called, real America.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2422

What Bonkers said.
This is great stuff.

FWDiva

OT:
Rachel’s on FIRE tonight.
Big expose of the anti-health-reform Astroturfers
Now covering why pro-reform forces are targeting Conservative Democrats.
–Nice ad.
and now Mr Snider (star of ad) is on…

FunnyWheelieDiva

Amen!

The transcript of this interview should be mined for a full post, so that the search engines pick up the questions.

The comparison of how Carter and Reagan each dealt with Iran over hostages was quite delightful, as was the “did you know Reagan doubled the social security tax?” question.

This is priceless! Keep up the good work MS

Are these guys related to a former miss SC candidate?

I only have one question. Where the hell is the link to donate to FDL????

here ya go tis on the front page on the right hand side in the toolbox

Thanks for the linky. That’s money well spent.

Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Mike, you are amazingly even-tempered. I could never do what you do- my repressed rage takes over and logic goes out of my brain. But this is great; polite, gracious, calm – but slamming bulleyes with every shot.

Did you have any sense that they might be open to actually opening their minds? Any idea how old they are?

Mike,

I’ll be completely honest. When I watched early segments of your work in D.C. for FDL I was a little skeptical. I didn’t really get approaching congressmen in a T-shirt, and nerves seemed to get in the way of clear questions.

Well, Mike. You’re one hell of a quick study, because since then I’ve been really, really impressed with your preparation, your professionalism, even temper, and your candor when thrusting yourself into these awkward situations with political opponents, from congressmen on down the line.

Really excellent work, and I’m very excited to see where you’re able to take FDL as our man on the front-lines.

Thank You!

This doesn’t just epose the future conservative propaganda, including the Reagan legacy building that is continuing to this day.

I have many I work with that are as informed with Reagan as the young cons and listing to anything that might not stroke Reagan as a war hero is unjust librul ranting they refuse to hear.

Can someone get the Q-Tip corporation on the phone.

Because there is is some money to be made here if they can come up with a Q-Tip that can get the conservative wax out of the cons ears that they could hear.

reagan was a pure genius for the upper class

give credit where credit is due the got the middle class to line up and vote for him all the while making sure in the near future there would be a two class system

he took it to the middle class and most still dont know what hit them

kudos to reagan he helped to sink america

maybe that will curb their wars for profits and imperialism around the world

and it needed no help from him

americans can do that all on their own

the new america run by chinese money and printed money

lets see how long that wil last :-)

but there is always hope :-)

Reagan did not “double” social security taxes. He did increase them especially for self employed workers – FICA withholding :
year cap…..employee/employer rate…. self employed rate
1980 25,900..6.13………………………… 8.1
1981 29,700..6.65………………………….9.3
1982 32,400..6.7…………………………..9.35
1983 35,700..6.7…………………………..9.35
1984 37,800..7.0…………………………..14.0
1985 39,600..7.05………………………….14.1
1986 42,000..7.15………………………….14.3
1987 43,800..7.15………………………….14.3
1988 45,000..7.51………………………….15.02

even if we’re only talking about FICA (OASDI/HI) rates on self employed we’re not talking about “doubling” it is a 85% increase, not a doubling. For most workers the increase was 22.5% over Reagan’s term.

We should be above hyperbole – a 22.5% increase in FICA taxes is significant. Note that wages were held down because employers had to pay the same increased rates.