It's the middle of July, and many of us have summer travel ahead of us. It's a good time to check out the state of the airline industry.

The Napa Valley-based Coalition for Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights recently issued a statement where it lauded certain members of congress for showing "tremendous leadership and a great sense of commitment to passengers' rights."

But, see, the group wants that bill of rights for passengers to become a reality. It acknowledged that "congressional rhetoric" is not enough. (Which, you know, can be applied to so much more than transportation issues.)

We first learned of the organization last January; as Jon reported then, Kate Hanni was one of the passengers caught on the infamous plane that spent 9.5 hours on an Austin tarmac. It was a flight that was supposed to go from SFO to Dallas. If you don't recall the story, her money quote was, "there were people getting ill, the toilets did begin to overflow." Hanni's the group's founder and spokesperson.

While some airlines seem to be putting a higher priority on passengers, other still let such things keep happening

We like the idea of the bill of rights a lot. It's good that the core issue has so much resonance, because as far as acronyms go, "CAPBOR" is a pretty forgettable one.