Election Assessment Hearing here Weds. 6/29

On Thursday, June 30th, the (James A.) Baker -- (former Pres. Jimmy) Carter Commission on Federal Election Reform will hold their second and final hearing at the campus of Rice University.

The commission has already refused to hear the testimony of Rep. John Conyers, who of course headed a congressional subcommittee investigation into the voting irregularities with regard to the 2004 election in the state of Ohio. David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004 presidential candidate, was also denied the opportunity to testify about the problems he encountered with Ohio's electoral processes during the attempted recount. Other election process researchers, analysts, investigators and atorneys were likewise refused the chance to report their findings of problems with our election processes during the 2004 election.

In response to this apparent lack of interest on the part of the Baker-Carter Commission in surveying problems with election processes evidenced in the last election, and in order to provide state election officials with data which will help them make informed decisions, 51 Capital March, with the endorsement of BradBlog, CAEF, IPPN, J-30 Coalition, USCountVotes, VotersUnite and others, is sponsoring an Election Assessment Hearing to be held in Houston on June 29th, the day before the Baker-Carter Commission is scheduled to meet.

Here's the location and agenda, and this is the list of presenters, which include Cobb and Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org .

Update (7/1): DemoDonkey posts her report on the hearing here.

The Toy Cannon in 1972.

There was a jersey retirement ceremony yesterday at Minute Maid Park for Jimmy Wynn, who has been one of my very favorite Astros from the time I sat in the shiny new Dome as a six-year-old (in the center field bleachers, with my glove, anticipating -- in that excitedly hopeful way that kids have -- a home run hit to me).

Wynn was, and still is, one of the humblest stars I ever watched. Even when he was told this past winter during a luncheon with owner Drayton McLane that his number would go into the rafters, he was speechless.

Congratulations to one of the true good guys.

Update: Tom Kirkendall, and via him John Brattain, each discuss in greater detail the Toy Cannon's career.