Note: this is simulcast on my personal blog, but since this particular entry seemed like it'd be particularly interesting to the crowd here and something that you're not going to hear elsewhere I figured I'd post it here too.
Okay, it was closer to 2 hours and 45 minutes. Still, it was a lot of Nader.
Consumer advocate and serial presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke at the University of Rochester today (or actually yesterday as of the time of this writing). Slamming Bush, pushing Linux, and justifying his choice to run again in 2004, Nader spoke well and entertained the crowd. His actual planned speech, which took a bit over an hour, was almost a sort of consumer advocacy pep rally. If you're at all familiar with his history or his stances you've probably heard it all before: consumers need to be informed, they need to be empowered to hold corporations accountable, the whole deal. Still, it was very interesting to see him actually speak on these issues, as he's obviously well informed himself and a quite effective speaker.
After his planned speech he accepted questions. I was sitting up in the balcony and as such could not participate in the mad dash to get in line behind the microphone to ask questions. When over a dozen people got in line and when it became obvious that he was taking his time giving his answers, I thought he'd only answer the first few. Well, I was wrong: he answered all but the last one or two.
