>> next, q and a with michael ramirez. ♪ >> this week on q&a, editorial cartoonist michael rick -- michael ramirez. as to ramirez, talks about his book "give me liberty or give me obamacare." , have youhael ramirez ever drawn a cartoon of mohammed , and if you have not, would you? michael: i wouldn't. i probably wouldn't to be honest with you. i don't do controversial cartoons just for the sake of controversy.

the purpose of cartooning is to reach a message to the audience that will not be overshadowed the controversy surrounding it. where there may be an opportunity to use mohammed, just the fact of having that in the cartoon would overshadow the point i was trying to make and take away the effectiveness of the cartoon. i am not opposed to using mohammed but i am more for ensuring that the lessons i am trying to communicate gets to the audience. brian: this is a personal question. we will talk about your book. , twoou really the brother sisters are medical doctors, and your brothers are as well? michael: i am. and their spouses are as well. the only way i can get them to show up at family reunions is i

say i am like a proctologist because i deal with congress. your brothers and sisters are medical doctors. and how many of their spouses are? brother is alder fertility specialist. his wife is not a doctor. all of the other spouses are doctors. my grandmother and grandfather were in the medical profession. doctor inther was a japan and my grandmother was a pharmacist. brian: your mother and father? i wanted to be a cardiovascular surgeon. i was saying in his speech at the other day, president obama got a nobel peace prize for doing nothing but i should get one. beginning.ack to the you have a japanese-american mother and a mexican-american other. how did that happen? i'm am half japanese.

and completely confused. military ins in the army intelligence. he met my mother in japan. she lived in the united states. but i was born in tokyo, japan. my older brother and i. the first one which i spoke was japanese. all over the world. it has been good exposure because i lived in belgium, and on and off between the united states and japan. brian: the political cartoon came to you when? michael: i never anticipated being a political cartoonist. i really wanted to be a doctor. i recall reading the newspaper every morning with my dad. we had tea when i lived in california. we took the orange county register and the l.a. times. had jeff mcnally.

he was working for the richmond times later. it ran his cartoons. we had this morning ritual where we would have breakfast, he would read the l.a. times first and halfway through, we would swap papers. i was aware of political cartoons and i loved them. and i loved paul conrad dark images. they were moving and they had deep messages. think jeffl -- i took that a step further with his wonderful sense of humor that i think extended the reach of the cartoon by reaching a much larger audience with a message with the humor. reader, ike any other love looking at the political cartoons but i never in my life envisioned being a political cartoonist. i stumbled into it by accident. brian: we're going to show a whole bunch of new cartoons from your book.

this is your second book. this cartoon may have been in your first book but it is not in this one. it was very controversial. you will remember it because the secret service came after you. -- youlain appearing explain it. michael: i used an old, iconic photograph from the vietnam war era where the saigon police caught a just vietnamese terrorist who had killed a kernel and his family in saigon. he executed them on the streets of saigon. i used that iconic image to portray george w. bush being assassinated by politics during the advent of the erect war. that image itself -- during the -- iraq war.

i was not investigated initially. drudge wrote a headline -- political cartoonist being investigated by secret service. when i got into the office of the l.a. times, we were inundated with calls. i had really not been contacted by anyone in the secret service. general rule at the l.a. times is all you have to do is call and start cussing and they would forward you to my phone. i never really received any phone calls before the story broke. and then as it turned out, the l.a. branch of the secret service did contact me but only because they had this big publicity about me being contacted by the secret service and i think they felt left out. i got a call in the middle of

the day after numerous calls and this guy said -- i am with the secret service and i would like to see you. i said -- you will have to get in line. how do i know you are with the secret service? , i haveesponded -- well a suit on, and dark sunglasses. i told him to come on down but i thought it was a crank call. a few minutes later, the receptionist said the secret service was willing -- was there to see me. times dispatched their lawyers, a team of lawyers down there and they promptly escorted him out of the building because we did not want to set a precedent of an interview -- a journalist being interviewed by the secret service. brian: we of 18 seconds of video. let us watch this to show how graphic this is. [video clip]

brian: you are not that old to remember that? michael: i do sort of remember that. not the entire clip. back in television in those days, they did not show the whole thing but i do remember the photograph as an iconic image of the vietnam war. that is what political cartooning is all about. using images that people are familiar with to convey a point of view. brian: another controversy that you were involved with -- michael: i was involved in another one? brian: you were accused of showing the wailing wall in jerusalem. here it is on the screen. michael: it was worshiping their god. that lookedtones

like the wailing wall and i produced the letters that spelled hate. it was during the first intifada. there is a figure that is a conglomeration of extremist israeli settlers and people that were opposed to the establishment of the palestinian state. the people creating the violent of people there. a addition to that, having palestinian figure, if you notice, he is on a prayer rug that he has issues on. -- he has his shoes on. usingf these figures are a false religion for a political purpose and stead of pursuing a religious advocacy, they were just worshiping hatred. when this appeared, i got numerous complaints from both sides. both the jewish groups were upset that i would use the

wailing wall figure and the palestinian groups were mad at me because i was accusing them of hatred. it proves once again that i am an equal opportunity offender. brian: you were syndicated. how many different papers are you syndicated in? 540.el: about i get hate mail in all different languages now. i only had one incident in my career. lionel lindner was the editor of a memphis paper. i was there for seven years. lionel was killed in an awful accident on new year's eve day. mccarran took over for him. he was the editor of the pittsburgh paper. angusmors were thick that

was very liberal, and lionel was very conservative. i would be one of the first people to go because i am very conservative. leaders lining up in his office for three days straight telling angus to fire me. pretty terrible beginning. in fact, he kicked me out of one of the editorial meetings. i like engaging in the meetings. on the third day that he was there, on a wednesday, the topic was on welfare reform. they were trying to advocate working to get welfare. i did a cartoon where i had an uncle sam figure lying in an alley, holding a sign saying -- will work with food. he is turning to the bum next to him saying -- they actually want

me to work. it is a totally legitimate cartoon. i said --to angus and this is a legitimate cartoon i think it ought to run. he said it would not run. and i said it would run in all of my syndicates. he used more explicit language. accountant and said we should get everything together because i think i will probably be leaving. i demanded a meeting with angus on that friday and went into his office. i said look, your five illustrators in this paper that are better artists than i am. if you want them to draw, hire them. i'm an editorial cartoonist. my job is to use profound images and break them down into something easy to present to an audience for them to understand. it has my name on it. if you want to put your name on

the cartoon, by all means, do. but i will not draw your cartoons. i will draw the best cartoon that i can't. give me the freedom that i need to do my best. i will research them and do my best with them. i will win you a pulitzer prize. if you are going to fire me, fire me now. he laughed at me. , no, do whatever you want. from that moment on, we got along great. he gave me the complete freedom to do whatever i wanted. that was the only incident when i had a cartoon killed. brian: how long were you with the l.a. times? michael: 7.5 years. brian: what happened? michael: a mutual parting of ways. they were looking for a way to cut costs. philosophically, it was never a good fit. my predecessor was called conrad.

we are about as diamond -- paul conrad. we were diametrically opposed. i had to negotiate upwards to do more cartoons for them. there was a huge transition between publishers. as the publishers came and went from the familiarity between me and the publishers left as well. we came to a point where they were looking at cost cuts. i don't think they ever embraced my philosophy. the only job i ever had outside of military service that i had to put on kevlar and at helmet to walk through the newsroom. brian: we will talk about your new job, where you are now. let us look at some of your cartoons from the new book. "give me liberty or give me a

obamacare." why the title? michael: they did not let me put -- an illustrated guide to impeachment. this massive expansion of government. unfunded liabilities when it comes to entitlements. 15 million more americans on government eight. this is whatthing, the administration represents. big government, progressive regime. unlawful regime. what i am proud about in this caseis it really makes the on all of the things that they have done wrong. past history provides for the future. we are getting into another presidential election cycle. i am hoping this will spark the initiative for people who want real change to get back to our constitutional foundation, to enact them and get involved in

the process. political cartoons are a catalyst for thoughts. what therogresses consequences of these disastrous policies have been. brian: for folks that do not know your politics. one of the introductions in your book is from dick cheney in the afterword is from rush limbaugh. no question on where you are. i want to show you what cartoon from 2008. the headline there -- 47 million uninsured. for those of you that cannot see it, the first figure 7 -- i can afford it but i do not want it. there are 18 million under that person. i am indestructible. i am a legal and i am not here. 12 point 6 million. i am in between jobs and only temporarily uninsured. 9.4 million. i am covered my appearance have not signed me up yet.

and, i am eligible but i have not signed up. 3.9 million. michael: this is the sad --sequence of what i think of when the media does not do its job. million figure has never been really proved. week after the administration rolled out the 47 million uninsured number, they brought that number down to 37 million because they had pulled it out of the air. the investigation done at the time, we are talking about 4% of the people that were uninsured at the time. brian: here is another one. from 2008. there is a woman standing there with "amateur over her head.

not two women senators. the prosecutor is saying senators. this is on obamacare. ing -- gift of making and trading going on to have senators take on this program. they used to gain or he -- chicanery. brian: this one is from 2010. tell us about the mad hatter. michael: the mad hatter is nancy pelosi. again, it was based on that thisscheme administration was going to push through using liberal methodology.

this complicated rule that no one had ever read was going to be passed on to the american public who did not know what was in it and what the consequences would be. brian: the cut line on this is -- please remove these items from your person. michael: this was on the debate going on today. on the fourth amendment. how hard we go to protect the general public and what constitutional rights do we have to exchange for safety. is a real question as to the extent of that. the thing that defines america is our constitution, and the liberties and freedoms that we have. of thisy, the fear danger from the terrorist groups will not overcome our common sense to redefine what america is. brian: in the corner on that badge it says -- tsa.

inside, it says -- u.s. department of grouping. -- groping. michael: that is when you had the stories where the tsa guys were getting touchy feeley. brian: 2014. the police are keeping us down. explain this. and the art of this and what you are trying to do for the person that pick this up. michael: we have the juxtaposition of the reality that is going on in the black community. the vast majority of homicides and killings are done by black on black crime and yet, there are some other civic leaders that are blaming it on the police. recentlye seen, just in the cases with the san bernardino and the policeman who let these people who could have

been hostages out of the building saying i would have been willing to take a bullet for you first. the police have a terrible job keeping a secure. it is made harder by this movement that is blaming them for the irresponsible behavior of other people. certain circumstances, obviously, the police should be condemned for their overzealousness for the grandest things that have happened. of vast majority circumstances, they are there to keep us safe. brian: here is 2012. come out of the darkness. explain this one. michael: this one is directed towards a generation of folks being brought up a different way then you and i were where we had a family unit. there was a cohesion. person relationship.

the new millennial's have a lot of violent video games, they communicate in ways that they do not see people anymore. thiswe have this incident, cartoon was about the shooting in colorado. the batman movies. what changed this person into this monster? the lack of communication. human contact. playing violent video games. these are all questions for generation y. this is from 2012. the headline on it -- a weapon guide for the uninformed. left, you have a semi automatic. mass shootings, 18.

michael: at the time, i wanted to compare the homicide rates and what type of instruments of murder are used and what were the damages. with some of the progressive media is they exaggerate things to fulfill their political agenda. idea that these weapons that look like assault rifles are in fact assault rifles. there is a big difference weapon an automatic where you squeeze the trigger and it fires off many rounds and these long rifle which are the same as a hunting rifle where you squeeze the trigger and it shoots one bullet. i wanted to compare and contrast the murders done with other weapons. blunt objects. handguns which no one is talking about banning. drunk driving.

people using their hands and feet and violent acts. auto accidents constitute far more death than mass shootings. brian: auto accidents were 32,000. rifles, 453 killed. 6009 people killed with handguns. 1817 with knives. drunk driving, over 10,000. that is in one year. michael: yes. came from the fbi. if we are going to debate, you have to know the facts area you have to be grounded in the facts. cartoon here from 2009. again, the figures are small. explain what you see in this. athael: two indians looking

the new invaders of the new world. one indian is saying to the other -- running there, not another word about immigration reform. be polite to our visitors. the motivation behind this is on immigration and how the indians probably did not worry about it back then and therefore now, you see who is dominating. a tongue in cheek play on what is going on in immigration. for some of us, there is a delineation between immigration and illegal immigration. just like the delineation between islam and radical islam. the leaders cannot figure out the difference between the two. i should not be guiding our government. many will be conservative and how many liberal? -- 9-1. nine p1

10% of the conservative cartoons out there, i would be very surprised. brian: who are some of the other leading conservative r tunis --cartoonists? michael: there are not that many. stephen started out being conservative. the debate he had within his church, the mormon church, he is now very liberal. he has become very progressive. we are outnumbered. maybe a half-dozen progressive cartoonists, liberal cartoonists that i love. areervative cartoonists few. scott's danis in chicago, more center-right. there are many that have retired or left their paper. the mccoy brothers. beeler, center-right.

brian: one of the most celebrated political cartoonist in my lifetime is a man named herb locke. they did a documentary of him at hbo. here is him. he appeared in 1993. he is deceased. gave $50ied, he million he had earned at the washington post to a foundation. here he is. [video clip] >> this is a cartoon from 1950. apparently so. mccarthyisme of that i know of. it originated because i wanted to put something on that barrel and you could not call it mccarthy himself.

i thought of mccarthyism. it caught on. brian: how often has a cartoonist from your experience developed something like mccarthyism or some other term? it happens very rarely i imagine. i don't look at other political cartoonist. i did on occasion. we all deal with the same issues. hour news with the 24 cycle. i don't one to see what my competition is doing. toant to deliver a message my readers. that is the most important thing in my mind. i don't want to see what anyone else is doing because we are talking about the same subject matter. i don't want to subconsciously

adopted one of their ideas. brian: how often do you find people who do not focus on what the politics are of cartoonists? how often do you find people that completely understand what you are trying to do? because you and i are into politics, we think in that way. i don't think the vast majority of americans actually think in that light. i am really surprised when i give speeches around the country , how closely unified the american people are on the majority of the issues. they are divided on a lot of substantial issues, but for the majority, americans are much closer than people would think. there are people in political organizations that have an agenda and want to draw the people apart because it helps them. there are more things that unify us then divide us.

brian: pat oliphant. -- this is back in 2014. david mccullough is on the stage with him. toant to see -- i want you see what he does as he is drawing richard nixon. [video clip] >> i get the feeling that you are having a good time. >> it comes back about once a year. [applause] [laughter]

>> i did not know he was left-handed. brian: so, when you were growing up, what cartoonists besides paul conrad and others you mentioned, did you pay any attention to? and what about the drawing part of this? you have a certain way of drawing. wereel: my influences whatever was running in the newspaper and the people i liked the best. pat oliphant was when. he was a phenomenal political cartoonist. i can appreciate the artwork itself and what it is meant to iswitches and that -- which a mechanism to influence people regardless of political party you are affiliated with.

mostoes it better than anyone i know. jeff was in that category. jeff was a good friends. and sort of a mentor. i loved just work. he added an element of humor that i think was a great tool in expanding the audience of a political cartoon which is something i try to utilize in my cartoons. paul conrad, the dark and foreboding images that he had. they would reach you and touch you. goodnk that is what effective political cartooning is. i view it as advertising on television. have about five seconds to capture the viewer's attention and you have another five seconds to deliver the point or sell the product. the difference is with television, you're selling a product. with cartoons you're selling an

idea. i believe i am trying to reach people. i am trying to change people's minds. reinforce the ideas that they which is myurpose view of what the united states ought to be very what this self-governing, democratic republic is all about. the power of america lies in its people. less government, more people. the people should have the power . they should wield this power. forget that it is the politicians that work for the people. brian: back to the cartoons. this is 2014. a familiar face will appear on the screen. how have you drawn her? michael: hillary has been great. i have to say that the clintons are probably my favorite political family. i won my first pulitzer in 1994 on the back of that

administration. it is when she was professing not to have any money and get she was making $200,000 a speech. the relationship that bill has with his interns is probably the same relationship that hillary has with the lack of being able to tell the truth. she makes for great political cartoons. brian: how did you -- did you draw her on purpose that way? michael: when you take a caricature of someone, you are changing the dynamics of their features. not only to make them into a cartoon but to show the dynamics of their personality as well. if you notice in my president obama cartoons, the more he is prevarication, the larger his ears get.

oliphantee that in pat caricatures of richard nixon. as he got more immersed in watergate, the shadows on his face and his eyes that darker. pretty soon, they were barely eyes. they were black holes in his head. sullivanars ago, pat was not particularly -- pat oliphant was not particularly friendly with the jimmy carter administration. at the end of the administration, he was tiny and in the corner. michael: the perfect device. the one thing we have over our journalist colleagues is exaggeration. we can create our own world. we areamic is that trying to say something with a personality. i went to investors -- you went to investors business daily. michael: the best editorial page

in the country. i do write some. i comanage it. an expansion of my duties. frankly, we have great writers there. we are not afraid to tell the truth. people are giving praise to donald trump for his bluntness but i have been doing that my entire career as a political cartoonist. ofdo that in the pages "investors business daily." we are located in los angeles at we have offices all over, new york, and d.c. our new printing plant will be in texas. 156,000 daily circulation. michael: that is strictly print. brian: what about digital? know what the't

numbers are a we have rapidly expanded digitally. we are reaching so many more people that way. brian: here is a cartoon and it looks like you are cutting both sides. erskine bowles is on the left. since then is the senator in the middle. commission and then you have a tiny kid on the right . his formula is -- cut spending. michael: the configured a debt commission. i don't know how many millions of dollars they spent putting together this commission to figure out the solution to the national debt that we have. the little baby is just saying -- cut spending. it is amazing, when you look back at our budgets. that george w. bush was president, we had a democratic majority in the house and congress.

he was roundly criticized for overspending which was right. i did cartoons against that as well. i was looking back at that when you had that configuration, and the deficit was $160 billion with the v. the apexrs later, at of the obama administration with a democratic majority, in the house and the senate, the deficit rose to $1.3 trillion. that does not mention the growth in those years in federal spending. $2.4 trillion with the federal outlay. $3 trillion in seven years. population growth was 4%. how big does this government have to be? when you read these endless stories about the duplication of services. obamacare has become an extension of medicaid.

taxpayers of fortune and yet they are not receiving better services. ath me, it is about having smaller, more efficient government. the realization is that we have a finite amount of capital out there. you can give it to the people that innovate and create jobs. of dynamic economy to grow. or you can give it to bureaucrats who do nothing but shuffle paper. that is cartoonist deceased, we did an interview with him in 2008. he is about as far left as you are right. i want to know what you think of this. he was not the same kind of -- you saw him mostly in magazines like the "new yorker." i think he also drew -- it is david levine. [video clip] of henry kissinger.

it was rejected by a publication. "the nation." it was known among cartoonist that if you had to try something or you wanted something that was "loaded," this was the place to go. they printed kissinger having sex with the globe, being the head of the woman. suggest that sexually, this guy is screwing the world. brian: what do you think? it is a family newspaper where i work so there are some limitations. i want to reach a large audience . i have not seen a lot of what

david has done but they are mostly caricatures. i am a hard right-winger. very conservative. i am looking at these issues on their merits. not about personalities. i am an equal opportunity offender. it is about, when you make these drawings, how will it translate to the audience and how many people can i reach. crass, itsomething to is going to be limited. you can get controversy about it but controversy itself is not always good. thetimes, it overshadows point you're trying to make. sometimes the hardest decision to make is not running a cartoon. when johnny cochran died. i thought of a great cartoon. the first image was johnny cochran in heaven. he got oj simpson off of a murder charge. the gates of heaven and st.

peter's -- and st. peter saying -- i'm sorry johnny, but the halo don't fit so i don't admit. seeing all that he had done, he anda very generous person involved in a lot of charitable activities. i could not find the man by one single action. with political cartoons, it is almost just as important to know what not to draw. brian: from 2012, the cut line is -- and there is plenty more of where that came from. we will see it in a second. what is this? michael: this is on turning corn into ethanol. -- we can byproducts go into the inefficiencies of using corn-based fuel. but what they did not realize is

that in doing this, you also limit the supply of food out there for third world countries. they are making the cost of corn rise as they were utilizing corn for ethanol. i decided to juxtapose that to the conditions going on in the third world where corn is a very important element for them to survive. and yet, we are doing it because we want to push this country towards alternative fuels even if it is in it -- inefficient in its creation. an account in your university of california, irvine alma mater publication that you ind to have bill clinton, imitation of bill clinton on your answering service. michael: when a mightier risk friends is paul shay glenn who does voice impersonation's on the rush limbaugh show.

i discovered paul in memphis, tennessee. i was invited to play golf. surf because i am from california. a friend of mine invited me to play golf with a couple of his friends. it was the first time i had ever played golf. there was one person who was more physically inept with a golf club than i was. --as leaning down to pot putt, and suddenly i heard ronald reagan coaching me and it was paul. he is an amazing impersonator. rushked him up with the limbaugh show. every once in a while, i would get him to record my answering machine and do different voices. i made the mistake once of giving him my code to the answering machine. i actually had to get rid of that answering machine.

hethe middle of the night, would change my messages and that created all kinds of problems aired on sundays, when i was doing u.s. today for mondays, tall and i would get together to talk about parities and skin for his songs. draw mym -- starting to cartoon, i get focused and ignore everything. unbeknownst to me, all would answer my telephone as me. later in the day, i would have friends calling me back asking me what kinds of medications i was on because i was speaking gibberish. it was paul answering my phone. as me. if you want and of noxious friend, there is one for you. brian: a couple of years ago, al gore sold his television network to al jazeera for $500 million, reportedly. you have a cartoon in 2013. --hael: al gore is saying

so, i sold my station to an anti-american network. i always said i was for a green economy. it was kind of ironic that al gore who was supposedly for the green movement turned out to be more of a capitalist then and environmentalist in this circumstance. wept when ally gore did not win the presidency because i think that would have been a fine thing for editorial cartooning. from: the next one is 2014. it is very complicated. it starts out with -- global cooling with a line through it. global warming with a line through it. climate change with a line through it and then climate disruption underlined. michael: the rebranding of the global -- i should say that climate movement.

called globalre cooling in the 1970's. and then, global warming. and then, the earth has not 15 years soe last they changed it to climate change. now, they are changing it to climate disruption. -- itttle kid is writing is called weather. side. on the other the climate is warmer and that is crossed out. and then it says -- cooler for now. michael: the climate has been pretty constant in the last 15 years. if you look carefully on the mchammer.ays -- e= government that has taken on the role of being the nanny state.

stop your whining. we will provide for you. just do what we asked. if you do exactly what we asked, we may provide you with some health care. the plantation mentality of the government that oversees everything that we do. i was up in new york, i always have breakfast. the have the same person guiding me to make sure i do not use too much salt on my eggs. brian: 2011. rather stark. when you think about clarence thomas, there is a lot of proof -- he is just one example. i love clarence thomas. some of his writings are amazingly in-depth analysis of everything and yet they criticized him because they never asked questions during the hearings. it seems to me, when you look at these conservative

african-americans, they ought to be models for the community. the mainstream media indicated becausee who they are by virtue of what their skin color is. i am one quarter spanish, one quarter mexican and half japanese. in the 21st century we should move beyond the idea that race is a determiner for anything. i have two brothers and two sisters and they are all extremely intelligent and kind people. the exact opposite of me. we come from the same genetic material. at some point, we need to discover that we need to move on. brian: i want to explain what they are looking at. 1950's, theyhe

discriminated against blacks by having refrigerated water for the whites and then having very poor water deliveries for the blacks. i am saying that there are certain people in the political hemisphere that have done the same thing to conservative blacks. that discrimination is going on today. the kinds of things they are allowed to say about people like clarence thomas and ben carson is horrible. brian: you might find this interesting. i am not sure i'm going to pronounce this correctly. times baghdad. bureau chief. talking about an iraqi cartoonist. watch this. [video clip] >> this is a very point in its one by him. by him.ant one

uncle sam is drawing a portrait of this scene but instead of the gun, he is handing the flour to the guy. i asked him if he thought this cartoon was inflammatory. he laughed at me and said -- i go online and i check out the american cartoonist and the stuff they have about bush and u.s. foreign-policy and american domestic and international politics. it is far more critical and nasty than anything i have ever drawn. -- thereit reminds me are a bunch of us that got to visit with ronald reagan. in the rose garden when he was president. he had a wonderful joke. -- the difference between the united states and the soviet union is the united states political cartoonists can draw political cartoons of the president of the united states. in the soviet union, the political cartoonists have to

draw cartoons on the president of the united states. that is the one thing we have amazing abouto this country. the freedom of speech. freedom of information. you can effectively criticized those people that run the government. it really differentiates between who we are and what other countries are. a bunch of us went to cuba. i got the opportunity to talk to the information minister. i asked him questions about the brothers in arms flight that was shot in international airspace. about the journalists arrested. even talk about democracy, they were arrested. he refused to answer. i said -- let me ask you one more question. your reporters and some of the cartoonists in cuba and they are not allowed to draw images of fidel castro. they cannot draw images of che

guevara. in america, we believe the country that cannot make fun of its leaders, is usually imprisoned by its leaders. what is your favorite fidel castro joke? his face went white. little beads of sweat rather on his four head. i do not knowd -- what but i will tell you one later. that is the difference between the united states and the freedom that so many people have sacrificed so much for it. we have men and women out there who are fighting to guarantee our liberty and our freedom. the freedom that we take for granted. i don't think any editorial cartoonist -- to educate the masses, to make sure they understand that the government works for the people. brian: you made some people who have an iranian connection mad at you for this.

let us put this on the screen. the cockroaches. cartoon received a lot of criticism. if you look carefully at the cartoon -- on the bottom of the globe. it talks about terrorism. specifically about extremism in iran. brian: it is the country of iran and it has a sewer lid over it and cockroaches coming out of it. it is talking about a very specific segment of the population of iran that is andonsible for in gender the surrogates of evil and spreading chaos within the region. i did receive a lot of criticism for it. what i said was that iran is responsible for a lot of the chaos that is going on.

this expansion of radical extremism. it started in iran first. that extremists and saudi arabia are doing the same thing but these groups, when you look at the population, the average age is 28 and they are very pro-western but that the illogical dictators of the regime, the revolutionary guard uses this evil to create chaos in the region. the cockroaches spreading to afghanistan and iraq and syria. and even to israel and the gaza strip and pakistan and all of the countries around it. what made people the most angry about this? michael: in iran, they were mad because i characterized the country as a whole as a refuge for cockroaches. realizethink people

that this expansion, this iranian expansion is very dangerous. -- mutually assured destruction only works when the other side does not want to die. because this nuclear arms race that will go on in the region, the region has a lot of oil money but little reverence for human life. it will become a much more dangerous world. brian: this one is from 2014. you can see it on the screen. this is the world trade center. you have people falling to their debts. the 1 -- deaths. explain this one. afraid of thenot feedback. there is a a real question as to the responsibility of our intelligence services to figure out where these dangers of terrorism are coming from.

war onu look at this terror that we are in right now. it can only be effective if you know what is going on on the ground. by taking away the devices that allow you to figure out the machinery that is generating the terrorism, exposes the dangers. waterboarding. i don't think it is torture, frankly. if you just blow up terrorist and you do not find out who they are and how they are it, the san bernardino case, we got their electronics. we can put together a trail of who these people are. that is a much better way to secure our safety. brian: when less question. how did you get dick cheney and rush limbaugh to rate the forward and the afterward? michael: i am honored to say i have become friends with it can win cheney. ck and lynn cheney.

i have always been a fan of their politics. i have been friends with rush limbaugh for a long time. he used to run my cartoons in his letter. brian: besides buying this book for $28, where can people see you on a regular basis? michael: if you go to our website, you will see my cartoons every single day. you can get me on twitter. and on facebook. "ian: the name of the book is give me liberty or give me over on the care." michael ramirez, thank you for being here. michael: it was my pleasure. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

oh >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us at q&a.org. our programs are also available at c-span broadcast -- c-span podcast. >> if you enjoyed this interview with michael ramirez, author and illustrator molly crabapple talking about her illustrations about the guantanamo detention center. syndicated columnist diana west on cultural and political issues from a self-described

conservative viewpoint. search our entire video library at c-span.org. c-span takes you on the road to the white house and into the classroom. our student cam documentary contest asks what issues you want to hear from the presidential candidates. next the british youth parliament debate on public transportation. members of the british youth parliament