Follow-Up On Last Week's Show

Sorry to be late with a post about last week's show, especially since IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS WE'VE HAD. Our guests were State Representative Eddie Rodriguez and Texas Monthly CEO Evan Smith.

Representative Rodriguez talked about the recently completed legislative session and his accomplishments in transportation, affordable housing, public education, health care, enviromental protection. Then we visited with him about his future political plans. He mentioned how Austin's Senator Kirk Watson is being discussed as a potential Democratic candidate for Governor in 2010. If he runs for Governor, his state Senate seat will open up. Eddie announced that, if Watson jumps into the Governor's race, he will most likely be a candidate for the Senate seat.

Evan Smith visited about his recently-announced decision to leave Texas Monthly, where he's been an editor for almost two decades and as President and CEO since last year. Evan is leaving to become the CEO of the Texas Tribune, an non-profit, non-partisan, non-paper "public media organization whose mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide interest." Evan will lead an extraordinary bunch of journalists, headed by Ross Ramsey, editor of Texas Weekly (which the Texas Tribune has purchased) and friend of the show. Other writers include Elise Hu, political reporter for Austin KVUE Channel 11 News (and friend of the show); Matt Stiles, staff reporter for the Houston Chronicle; Brandi Grissom, Capitol reporter for the El Paso Times; Emily Ramshaw, from the Capitol staff of the Dallas Morning News.

This coming Friday (the 31st), Ann Kitchen joins us to help make sense of the national debate over health care.

July 17 -- SD-25, Campaign Finance Reports

In 20o6 JOHN COURAGE ran a, well, courageous campaign against Republican congressman Lamar Smith, who's represented his custom-gerrymandered district since the Civil War. After his loss, Courage founded the True Courage Action Network to encourage political and legislative activism.

John Courage is out guest today, announcing his run for state senator against incumbent Jeff Wentworth. Wentworth represents SD-25, which runs from San Antonio to South Austin. Courage will make his case for the race.

Also, longtime Capitol reporter PEGGY FIKAC, who writes for the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, will visit with us about the campaign finance reports that came out this week and the SD-25 race.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY airs every Friday from 2-3 pm Central on KOOP, Austin's community radio station. Tune in at 91.7 FM or over the Web at http://www.koop.org/.

The Sharpest Tool in the Box

In 1998, John Sharp -- Comptroller and former Railroad Commissioner, Senator and House member -- narrowly lost to Rick Perry in a very close Lieutenant Governor's race. Sharp ran for Lieutenant Governor again, in 2002, and lost to multimillionaire David Dewhurst (whose tenure as Lieutenant Governor has been less than stellar).

Sharp is running again, this time for the U.S. Senate seat likely to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Sharp is our guest today on Texas Politics Today. We also interview some Texans old and new about what Independence Day means to them.

Texas Politics Today airs every Friday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Central time on KOOP, Austin's community radio station. KOOP can be heard at 91.7 FM in Austin and live over the Web at http://www.koop.org/. Tune in, and have a Happy Independence Day!!

I Didn't See That One Coming

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY has been eager to cover Speaker politics. In Texas, politics is a full-contact sport, and nowhere does it get bloodier than on the floor of the Texas House. At the end of the last session, a full-blown insurgency paralyzed the House during the last four days and provided the best show in town, whether you sat in the House Gallery or watched it on cable TV.
Tom Craddick and his parliamentarians, Terry Keel and Ron Wilson, held off the insurgents with a novel theory of parliamentary procedure: that the Speaker has the right to refuse recognition to any member for any purpose, even if that member is making a so-called "privileged motion," which to ordinary mortals means IT MUST BE ALLOWED, CONSIDERED AND VOTED UPON.

I don't know if parliamentarians get together for conferences, the way lawyers or engineers or accountants -- updates on the latest developments in the profession, with some night life in a fun place like New Orleans or Las Vegas thrown in. But if they did, you can bet all the conference this last year or so have had a seminar on "The Craddick Rule."

In any case, the insurgency did not die and has re-emerged since the November election. Tonight, 11 ABC ("Anybody But Craddick") Republicans announced that they'd agreed upon an alternative to Craddick: two-term House member Joe Straus from San Antonio. Straus seems an unlikely choice: he joined the House less than four years ago, elevated in a special election. He's not distinguished himself in the House, although he seems popular and serious.

On the plus side, he is wealthy and, through his family, very well-connected in Republican circles. He's not a winger, though -- he supports stem cell research, among other transgressions. He's probably pretty representative of the Alamo Heights district he's from.

The ultimate question is, can he translate the consensus among the 11 ABCs into a majority? Will the 64 members of the Democratic caucus who've pledged not to support Craddick "under any circumstances" hold together and, better yet, jump in with Straus? If so, then he's right at the 75 votes he needs. We may see a stampede this weekend or the first part of next week.

What, Another Election? The Speaker's Race in Detail

Last week's elections were very important, and millions of us participated. But there's another election coming soon, one that will affect each and every Texan, and only 150 people can participate.

Unlike statewide officials, the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is elected by his colleagues. Nevertheless, the Speaker is one of the most powerful people in state government. Tom Craddick (pictured at left) has served as Speaker of the Texas House since 2003 -- the first Republican since Reconstruction to do so. Craddick's strong will and determined organization have made him a powerful Speaker; his governing style has also made him many enemies. And so it is that a lively, no-holds-barred Speaker's race is already underway.

This week on Texas Politics Today, we look at the crucial role of the Speaker in the Texas House of Representatives and examine the unfolding Speaker's race with two months to go until the 81st Texas Legislature convenes.

Former Speaker Pete Laney will talk about the role of the Speaker and what a Speaker's race looks like from the inside. Pete Laney (pictured at right) represented his West Texas district in the House for over 30 years and served as Speaker of that body from 1993-2003.

Former Speaker Laney then join Texas Monthly President and Editor Evan Smith and Austin American-Statesman political writer Laylan Copelin in an entertaining and absorbing analysis of the current Speaker's race.

Texas Politics Today airs every Friday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Central time on KOOP 91.7 FM, and streams live over the web at http://www.koop.org/. Tune in early this week to hear journalist Jeremy Scahill on privatization, US foreign policy, and the next presidential administration on People United at 1:00. Allan Campbell hosts, with a regular commentary by Rahul Mahajan ("Only in America").

This Week: Representative Valinda Bolton

This week on Texas Politics Today: Representative Valinda Bolton, Democratic candidate for State Representative in House District 47. HD-47 covers much of southern and southwestern Travis County. Bolton has been the State Representative since she won a close race in 2006. We'll ask her about her accomplishments during her first term and invite her to make her case for re-election.

Ms. Bolton's opponent, Donna Keel, has declined multiple requests to appear on the show.

Representative Bolton's campaign website is here. Ms. Keel's is here.

Texas Politics Today airs on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. Central Time on KOOP, Austin's community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM and can be heard streaming live over the Web at http://www.koop.org/. Texas Politics Today is hosted by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein and Austin community activist (and "Best of Austin 2008" winner as "Best Radio Talk/News Host") David Kobierowski. Visit our websites at http://www.texaspoliticstoday.net/ or http://texaspoliticstoday.blogspot.com/.

EXCITING NEWS!: Beginning the week of November 2, Texas Politics Today expands to one hour and moves to Friday afternoons at 2:00 p.m. Central Time. Thanks for your past support of the show and we hope you'll tune in once we move to Fridays!

Vote, Vote, Vote!!!

Voting is the most fundamental privilege we enjoy as Americans. As we approach the most important presidential election in a generation, TEXAS POLITICS TODAY takes us back to Square One: registering to vote. You can’t vote if you’re not registered, and the deadline for registering for this election is fast approaching — Monday, October 6.

Our guest this week is NELDA WELLS SPEARS, the Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector and voter registrar. She’ll explain how easy it is to register and describe the various ways the county is making it even simpler. Also, we’ll hear from Dave G, a Houston-area musician and activist who’s using music and new media to get more young people to register to vote through his site, http://www.texasstandup.com/.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.

KOOP, “the little station that could,” is Austin’s only community-owned radio station. It shares the FM 91.7 radio frequency with KVRX, the University of Texas student radio. It also streams live over the Web at http://www.koop.org/. KOOP is on the air on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on weekends from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Archival photo of suffragists from Travis County registering to vote in 1918. Photo Credit: State Archives and Library Commission.

Americans: Keep Religion, Politics Separate

A new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows significant changes in how Americans view the relationship between personal religious faith and political behavior. In the wake of the Saddleback Church forum on faith held last Friday with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, this study shows a much different message environment for candidates and interest groups wanting to use hot-button religious issues to motivate voters.

From the report:

A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.

As you can see from the graph, the lines have crossed since 2004, when Karl Rove and the GOP deliberately placed initiatives to ban gay marriage on the general election ballot as a way to energize social conservative voters.

The report goes on to note that

most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. ... As a result, conservatives' views on this issue are much more in line with the views of moderates and liberals than was previously the case. Similarly, the sharp divisions between Republicans and Democrats that previously existed on this issue have disappeared.

Another chart shows this evolution in stark terms:


Among those who think that gay marriage is a very important issue, the percentage of people who favor greater separation between religion and politics has increased 25%! Among those who think abortion is a very important issues, the percentage of people who favor greater separation between religion and politics has increased 16%! These are significant shifts in opinion among social conservatives. There could be several reasons for this.

• First, on the issue of gay marriage, the war is over (for now). The self-righteous, er, social conservatives have won. The steam has gone out of arguments from James Dobson, Tony Perkins, et al., that the threat of gay marriage was the end of American civilization.
• Second, other issues like the sagging economy, inflated gas prices, and the war in Iraq have supplanted hot-button social issues as concerns for Americans.
• Third -- and I think this is most important -- people of faith who thought their religious values were best expressed in issues like abortion and gay marriage have watched the cavacade of corruption, venality, heartlessness and incompetence that characterizes the modern Republican Party and realized they'd been had -- that party leaders like George Bush, Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay cynically manipulated their heartfelt faith to advance a vicious, amoral agenda, all the while laughing behind their back.

In any case, the study shows that a shifting political landscape for social conservatives and the politicians who would exploit them. To be sure, the culture wars are not over, but this election season may pass without them being a central focus of the campaigns.

Faith and Politics

Last Saturday evening, Rick Warren, the California mega-church pastor and best-selling author, hosted a forum on faith and politics in his church. The forum, televised nationally, included interviews with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. The fact that Warren could compel the appearance of both candidates (who have not shared a stage in several months) was interesting, and the nature of his interviews as well.

This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, we're talking about the intersection of religious faith and civic engagement in American life. Should an individual's faith have nothing to do with her politics? Should a church dictate a person's political values, even how he votes?

Our guide in this inquiry will be Bee Moorhead, the executive director of Texas Impact. Texas Impact is one of those "faith-based organizations," a grassroots network that includes regional and statewide religious organizations, local congregations and alliances, and individuals. Texas Impact strives to make information about state government and public policy accessible to people of faith and all interested Texans. Bee has been with Texas Impact since 2000, but before that served our state as a policy analyst in the Comptroller's Office. Her insights will be both entertaining and, well, insightful.

The show airs every Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at http://www.koop.org/. Tune in for this interesting presentation!


TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.

Energy Policy -- This Week onTPT

Last week, U.T. politics guru Jim Henson joined us to review the Texas Lyceum Poll 2008 just released last month. Among other things, the poll asked over 1,000 Texas respondents to identify what they thought were the top issues facing the nation and the state. Here they are:

MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL ISSUES:
Economy 33%
Gas Prices/Energy 20%
Iraq War 14%
Leadership/Gridlock/Corruption 6%
Security 4%
Immigration 4%
Health Care 4%
Morality 3%

MOST IMPORTANT STATE ISSUES
Gas Prices/Energy 21%
Immigration 20%
Economy 17%
Education 12%
Leadership/Gridlock/Corruption 7%
Health Care 4%
Roads/Traffic 4%
Environment 2%
Taxes/Property Taxes 2%

Dr. Henson discussed these important results with us last week. This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, we’re taking issue Numero Uno at the state level — gas prices and energy — and comparing the two presidential candidates, presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, and comparing their positions on short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to America’s over-dependence on foreign sources of energy.

The show airs every Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at www.koop.org. Tune in for this interesting presentation!

For more information, you can check out Senator McCain’s energy platform here and Senator Obama’s energy plan here.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.

Last week, U.T. politics guru Jim Henson joined us to review the Texas Lyceum Poll 2008 just released last month. Among other things, the poll asked over 1,000 Texas respondents to identify what they thought were the top issues facing the nation and the state. Here they are:

MOST IMPORTANT NATIONAL ISSUES:
Economy 33%
Gas Prices/Energy 20%
Iraq War 14%
Leadership/Gridlock/Corruption 6%
Security 4%
Immigration 4%
Health Care 4%
Morality 3%

MOST IMPORTANT STATE ISSUES
Gas Prices/Energy 21%
Immigration 20%
Economy 17%
Education 12%
Leadership/Gridlock/Corruption 7%
Health Care 4%
Roads/Traffic 4%
Environment 2%
Taxes/Property Taxes 2%

Dr. Henson discussed these important results with us last week. This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY, we’re taking issue Numero Uno at the state level — gas prices and energy — and comparing the two presidential candidates, presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, and comparing their positions on short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to America’s over-dependence on foreign sources of energy.

The show airs every Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at www.koop.org. Tune in for this interesting presentation!

For more information, you can check out Senator McCain’s energy platform here and Senator Obama’s energy plan here.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.

Today on TPT: What's On Your Mind?

This week on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY we'll be paraphrasing Sigmund Freud's famous question and asking, "What do Texans want?" Our topics is, "What is on Texans' minds as we go into the election season?" Our guest will be Jim Henson, Director of the Texas Politics Project at The University of Texas at Austin and co-author of the recent poll released by the Texas Lyceum at the end of June. You can read more about the poll here.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.

Harvey Kronberg On TPT Today

Quorum Report owner and editor Harvey Kronberg will preview the fall election season and handicap the most interesting races on today’s episode of TEXAS POLITICS TODAY. The show airs every week from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Austin and also streams live over the Internet at www.koop.org.

The Quorum Report is a non-partisan newsletter focusing on Texas politics and government. Founded in 1983, QR is Texas’ oldest political newsletter. Published online most days, the newsletter combines fast breaking news along with institutional memory and a healthy skepticism as befits a publication whose subscribers include most of Texas elected officials, most of the lobby as well as most law firms with a legislative practice.

Harvey Kronberg has been covering Texas politics since 1989. He also serves as political commentator for News 8 Austin — a 24 hour news channel serving central Texas. He has been cited in publications as diverse as The Congressional Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor and more.

David K's Thoughts On Markos

This is co-host David Kobierowski's thoughts on Markos Moulitsas' appearance on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY on Wednesday, July 16.

Texas Politics Today’s Deece Eckstein and David Kobierowski interviewed Markos Moulitsas, Founder Daily Kos today.

The interview was broadcast live at 2:30pm, Wed., July 16th, 2008 on 91.7FM KOOP, Austin’s Community Radio Station.

It was an honor to have Markos join us in-studio at KOOP Radio today.

Early in the interview, Markos commented “I started Daily Kos as a place to vent and react to what was happening in the world…because I was not seeing it in the traditional media”.

He went on to say “there was a yearning for a progressive medium that was not Corporate in nature. Daily Kos provides honest progressivism”

For me personally, having dedicated 15 years of my life to Corporate America, hearing Markos’ story was refreshing. As a believer in Democracy from the bottom up, the success of Daily Kos validates our need for more honest voices from everyday people that are not paid lobbyists with a special interest agenda.

It was clear that Markos was not happy with the power of lobbyists in our government…he said at one point that “AT&T Lobbyists often have more influence than we (Daily Kos) do”.

Offline I asked Markos why blogs have been more successful on the left than the right and he commented that “the right has a top-down approach to governing, where the left has a more Democratic/bottom-up approach that allows for blogging to work”.

Yea!! That’s what I’m talking about!! With 92% of US AM Radio programs being Conservative, possibly the right doesn’t need to blog?? Well, I’m just glad the people’s voice is getting heard!

When asked about the mission of Daily Kos going into the Nov. elections and 2010 Markos explained “to find candidates that represent the “NetRoots values”…which Markos added “is a lot easier now than it was in 06′”

Another goal of DailyKos is “to push the Democratic Party to represent the people more, as opposed to representing the Corporate Interest”.

Referring to the potential of a major victory in Nov., Markos said “Republicans have made such a mess out of this country that you could be a Monkey and win some of these elections”

Specifically in TX, Markos commented “there’s a possibility for an upset in TX for Obama and the Democratic Party, IF the voters turn out”.

Markos talked about NetRoots Nation (YearlyKos) being “a truly bottom-up event. We didn’t say lets get a bunch of people together to go see Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. But we got a bunch of people together and then Nancy Pelosi wanted to join us”.

Referring to BOR, off-air Markos commented The “Burnt Orange Report is easily one of the top three ‘State Political blogs’ in the country”. NICE!

Thanks again Markos for joining us today on “TX Politics Today”!!

Markos on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY

Join Markos Moulitsas Zúniga on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY for a lively discussion of Internet activism and the 2008 elections. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY airs from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT every Wednesday on KOOP, Austin’s community radio station. KOOP is located at 91.7 on the FM dial and also streams live over the Internet at http://www.koop.org/.

Markos Moulitsas is the founder and principal author of DailyKos.com, the widely-respected political blog with an average daily readership of over 750,000 people. He has written several books, including Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics and the forthcoming Taking On the System: Rules for Radical Change in the Digital Era. He also is a contributing columnist to Newsweek Magazine. He’ll be talking with us about the netroots phenomenon and how it’s transformed politics, and giving us his thoughts on the fall elections here in Texas.

The Real Deal on the REAL ID Act

Melissa Del Bosque of the Texas Observer, whose coverage of the border wall controversy along the Rio Grande has won national acclaim, will discuss the border wall battle on TEXAS POLITICS TODAY this Wednesday, July 2. The radio show airs from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP radio, located at 91.7 on the FM dial. KOOP also streams live at http://www.koop.org/.

In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act, which (among other provisions) directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to meet a 2008 year-end deadline for completing 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Act also gave DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff broad authority to waive property rights, environmental, labor and other laws in order to get the job done.

Del Bosque began writing about the border wall fracas last year as the Department of Homeland Security ran roughshod over local communities, longtime landowners, and even the University of Texas System. The Observer’s coverage has won widespread praise and can be viewed here, here and on the Observer’s blog.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case of Defenders of Wildlife vs. Chertoff, in effect legitimizing the huge grants of power given to DHS in the REAL ID Act. Del Bosque will discuss the Chertoff decision and its implications for the civil liberties of all Americans. She will also discuss yesterday’s action by a Brownsville federal judge encouraging DHS and the University of Texas-Pan American to work out an alternative to DHS’s plan to bisect the campus with a section of the wall.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is collaborating with another KOOP program, “Shades of Green,” in reporting on these issues this week. “Shades of Green,” the environmental talk magazine, airs on Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. CDT on KOOP. ”Shades of Green” hosts Ken McKenzie-Grant and John Hoffner will have a representative of the national Defenders of Wildlife organization to discuss the Supreme Court decision as well as Sheila Dean, a nationally-known activist and blogger on REAL ID issues.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is the weekly radio show devoted to Texas state and local politics. TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is produced by longtime Capitol insider Deece Eckstein, who shares hosting duties with Austin community leader David Kobierowski.

KOOP, “the little station that could,” is Austin’s only community-owned radio station. It shares the FM 91.7 radio frequency with KVRX, the University of Texas student radio. It also streams live over the Web at http://www.koop.org/. KOOP is on the air on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on weekends from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Welcome to Texas Politics Today!

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY is a radio program on KOOP, Austin's community radio station. As described on its website,

KOOP is a community radio station owned and operated by its members. Any member of the community can apply to produce a radio program, and KOOP provides facilities and training. KOOP has about 60 different locally-produced programs airing every week, in time slots of 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes. Each of these programs is produced by an individual member or by a collective of members. KOOP provides a diverse array of programming, emphasizing programs that deal with local issues and/or serve communities which are under-served by the mainstream media.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY will address a vacuum in radio programing. It will be the only weekly radio program in Texas that focuses on Texas state and local politics. We believe that, just as war is too important to be left to the generals, politics is too important to be left to the politicians. Our goals are to inform, entertain and inspire our listeners.

This blog will be a part of the TEXAS POLITICS TODAY experience. We will eventually set up a website, www.texaspoliticstoday.net, but for now stay tuned to this blog. We will post information about coming shows. and -- once we master the technology -- podcasts of previous episodes. We also want this blog, and eventually the website, to contain links to other websites that are referenced on the show.

You can leave comments on this site, or email us at TexasPoliticsToday at gmail.

This is your radio show. Well, not really, but you know what we mean. We challenge you to challenge us. Suggest topics you want covered. Identify guests from whom you want to hear. Criticize us for what we do wrong, and praise us for what we do right. Most of all, INTERACT!