The Brian Lehrer Show

Reviving Democracy

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virgina, believes that it is time to rewrite the American Constitution. We find out why. Plus, a plan to abolish the St. Patrick's Day parade in its current form, the future of the city's streetscape, New Jersey's stem-cell research proposition, and defying stereotypes in the NYPD.

Listen to the whole show

Should the St. Patrick's Day Parade Be Abolished?

Niall O'Dowd, publisher of the Irish Voice newspaper, outlines why he wants to abolish the St. Patrick's Day parade in its current form. Also, Christine Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council, and Bruce Morrison, former Congressman from Connecticut, on what other immigrant groups can learn from the Irish.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's webpage

The NYC Streets Renaissance

Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, and Mark Gorton, president and founder of the Open Planning Project, discuss the future of New York City's streetscape.

The New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign
Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan's biography

Reviving Democracy

Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virgina and author of A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country (Walker & Company, 2007) believes that we should rewrite the American Constitution.

A More Perfect Constitution is available for purchase at Amazon.com

Open Phones: Stem Cell Research

Listeners from New Jersey participate in an unofficial, thoroughly unscientific poll on how they will vote on proposition 2, otherwise known as the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act.

Defying Stereotypes in the NYPD

In the documentary Tea & Justice, producer/director Ermena Vinluan, examines stereotypical views of Asian women and of the NYPD and how three Asian immigrant policewomen dealt with them. She’s joined by one of the women featured in the film, the NYPD's first Asian American female officer, Agnes Chan.

Event
Tea & Justice premieres Saturday, November 10th at the Queens International Film Festival.