[inaudible] >> on jim hightower. [applause] [inaudible] since my daddy took me to the show years ago. so let's get started, beginning with our leader. ralph nader, of course, is the author, yes, it's been 50 years now of unsafe at any speed and numerous consumer protection, environmental, worker protection laws in our country that is made it altogether a better place to live. the late great southern humorist said something some years ago that we in the south have always known to be true, that is there's a great big difference between being naked and being naked. being naked means you have no clothes on. being naked means you have no clothes on and you're up to something. well, i believe in the image of ralph nader nakedly own imagination but the naked truth is that ralph is always coming up with something, including this great democracy rally. ralph nader. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you, jim hightower, including to all of you here and those watching around the country to live streaming, thank

[applause] it is my pleasure to introduce jim hightower.y of you already know about him but there are something things you may not know about him and one is that he is such a force of nature that only eight --as -- that even the a's that even a texas cyclone could not blow him off the stage. is indefatigable. radio a national commentary program. -- shewritten many looks -- he hasn many books written many books with outlandish titles like "swim against the current, even a dead fish can go with the flow." but what most people don't know about him, outside of texas, is he was elected twice secretary of agriculture in texas where he went all over the state reorienting texas farmers who were beleaguered to giant suppliers and giant buyers of their products, very serious monopolistic hit on both sides to marketing their products directly, to moving towards more organic agriculture, to organizing themselves as a force to reviving the agrarian people and traditions at its best in texas. he was going for his third term where dirty tricks undermined

i turn you over to jim hightower. [ applause ] hi. away we go. thank you, ralph. let's bring on one of the democracy fighters right now, shawn armbrust is engaged in the life and death side of public interest work. more than a decade has been a executive director of the mid-atlantic innocence project, literally trying to deal with folks who have been wrongly jailed, imprisoned for 10, 20, 30 years even more. she's a board member of the innocence network all across our country as well. you have to be tenacious and you have to be creative do this kind of law. my mama taught me years ago two wrongs don't make a right, but i soon figured out that three left turns do. and that's the kind of creativity that shawn armbrust has been practicing for many years. shawn armbrust. is [ applause ] >> good morning. thank you so much for including me in such a terrific event with such terrific organizizations. it's an honor to be here today and i hope i'm able to give all of you a sense of how the innocence movement collectively has brown throuken through powe only free hun deads

i turn you over to jim hightower. [applause] hightower: all right. and away they go. thank you, ralph. let's bring on one of these democracy fighters right now. shawn armbrust is engaged in the life and death sight of public interest work for more than a decade he has been executive director of the mid-atlantic innocence project. literally trying to do with folks who have been wrongly jailed, imprisoned for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, even more. she's a board member of the innocence network all across our country as well. you have to be tenacious and you have to be creative to this kind of law. my momma taught me years ago that two wrongs don't make a right, but i soon figured out that three left turns do, that's the kind of creativity that shawn armbrust has been practicing for many, many years. shawn armbrust. [applause] shawn armbrust: good morning. thank you so much or including me in such a terrific event with such terrific organizations. it's an honor to be here today. and i hope i'm able to give all of you a sense of how the innocence of movement collectively

and so i don't know whether he's going to make you laugh yourself serious, but here's jim hightower. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, ralph and each and everyone of you through tuning in through cspan for this public interest power palosa that ralph has brought together. ralph ask that i do a bit of an overview and historical perspective midway through today ace marathon of presentations. these innovators, organizers, motivators, range across a wide range of issues as we've learned this morning, more to come momentarily, but all are really engaged in the fundamentals of democracy building, rallying the public to confront and defeat the plutocrat particular, autocratic, clip tow krat particular elites who constantly rule over us. by the elites i'm talking about the down sizers, privatizers, talking about the walmart wage whackers, the big oil fraccers, bosses, bankers, big shots, bastards and bsers are too afraid to run rough smod over us. this four day confab is our modern common sense. our 2016 declaration of independence from the multi-national trading companies run by corporate