The National Journal is reporting that House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes is having a major change of heart or at least twisting in the wind to a higher degree but appears to like the republican (non)compromise on FISA.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/04/silvestre-reyes-indicates-he-is-now-fine-with-gop-telecomfisa-bill/

And Digby has an interesting quote on the whole thing:

There just isn’t enough money at stake to explain this. Nobody’s suing for the money, they are suing for the discovery. Something bad happened here and the Democrats are helping the Republicans cover it up.

How bad? You really have to wonder if there is such a problem keeping the democrats in the house focused on the problem of law violations... LAWS were flagrantly broken here! Articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were casually tossed out the window onto the pyre for Democracy and freedom in this country! And the democratic 'leaders' aren't leading anywhere except back to the morass that is the mountain of lies and manipulation that has taken the place of 'governing' in this country...

Digby on FISA is here: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/fisa-zombie-by-digby-house-chairman.html

Evidently those damn Iraqi people should be grateful that we went in and killed so damn many of them and instituted our own rip off scam to fleece the American tax payer.

Those damn ungrateful Iraqi's... Now what do they want? Freedom? Like to think and stuff? Can't have that... Nope...

Uh, I flew in a Beech 1900 from MIA to NAS on a Northwest code share and they had a small glitter ball hanging in the cockpit. It was almost like the stuff hanging in the Millenium Falcon of Han Solo.

I thought it added the right amount of kitsch to a bizarre and uncomfortable flight. We had a different plane on the way back, no ball.

Yes, even on the Beech 19, people either stare out the window or stare at the backs of the pilot's heads and the instruments that they can see or the limited view out the windshield. My Bose headphones and an ipod didn't remove the engine noise and nothing could have removed the vibrations which varied from harsh to small cresting wavelets the entire time. You could tell if there were any changes in speed, pitch or airspeed by the change in vibration. (Do they have CV props on the 19?) And rudder movement can be felt quite well...

Although in defense of the Beech 19, the 'seats' are more comfortable than those in the CRJ900 that I flew recently. Those 'seats' felt more like benches during a cookout at a local park. My butt was asleep within minutes and I probably walked funny for the first half hour after getting off. Such is the life of cattle car air travel. The seats in 'first class' didn't look any more comfortable either... Padding must have been a very expensive item in outfitting that plane that year and they saved every penny they could.

Flying the small planes is where the romance of flying is still available, for those that get to experience it. (Example: Fly Cape Air in Puerto Rico for starters. Taxi out in a small Cessna twin behind a 767 to get a different feeling for what 'small plane' looks like (feel like a fly amongst giants). Experience takeoff and flying through mountain rains. Land at an 'airport' that isn't much more than a small brick building and a thin strip of asphalt. Experience 'honor system' security. Get the whole speal about takeoff and landing by the pilot that turns around in the seat and does it all before takeoff himself. No tray tables in this plane, or restroom either. And yes, the seats were more comfortable than the CRJ900. We had the same pilot 'there and back again'. It was fun. Watching things on the ground. Arecibo, etc.)