Intersting how bleeding heart, anti-capitalist liberals had to change the term "global warming" to "climate change". I suspect that they did this in order to cover their bums in case temperatures became cooler than normal, like they are now. While the global warming hoaxsters continue to lie about Antarctic ice melting the latest satellite data shows record ice. Not only record ice but a third more ice than average for this time of the year. The Arctic is also doing well.

NSIDC WIST: Compare data: Sea Ice Index: Extent, Concentration, and Concentration Anomalies

Simply compare January 1980 (the first January after satellite measurements began) with January 2008. The difference is striking, 44.1% greater ice extent and 30% greater ice concentration in January 2008 compared to 1980. So much for "global" warming, if it occurred the Antarctic definitely missed out on it. Facts like this mean nothing to the anti-capitalist global warming zealots like jeffc. Their goal is to ensure that the U.S. economy suffers and so that Jimmy Carter's friend Hugo Chavez can put more pressure on our economy by driving up the price of oil.

These are the people that want to run our country and "tax the rich"
The only jobs tax increases create are government jobs. Worse are claims that energy prices will come down ... how can raising an entire energy sector's overhead make prices lower? Carter-nomics didn't work when the windfall profit tax was imposed 30 years ago, and they won't work now. It actually carves out tax breaks for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez - courtesy of American taxpayers

Because of our geographic location and other factors, the cost of living in Hawaii greatly exceeds the cost of living on the mainland. An excellent analysis of this issue appears in the 21st edition of The Federal Budget and the States, a joint study conducted by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the office of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. According to the study, if per capita income is measured in real terms, Hawaii ranks 47th at $19,755 compared to the national average of $24,231. This sheds a totally different light on the state's financial status.

The cost of living in Honolulu is 83 percent higher than the average of the metropolitan areas tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau, based on 1995 data. Recent studies have shown that for the state as a whole, the cost of living is more than one-third higher than the rest of the U.S. In fact, Hawaii's Cost of Living Index ranks it as the highest in the country. Some government programs take the high cost of living in Hawaii into account and funding is adjusted accordingly. These include Medicare prospective payment rates, food stamp allocations, school lunch programs, housing insurance limits, and military living expenses.

In addition to those facts of consideration, Hawaii has:

* Highest Poverty: Starting from one of the most current statistics published, Hawaii leads the nation with a 29 percent (37,746 people) increase in poverty from 1990 to 2000. The U.S. Census Bureau released final 2000 Census data showing Hawaii over the last decade has the highest increase in poverty rates of all 50 American states with 126,154 people in Hawaii living in poverty. While Hawaii experienced an increase in its poverty rate, 37 of the 50 states experienced a comparative decrease in poverty rates.

* Highest Drug Addiction: Hawaii has the worst crystal meth problem in the nation and it is destroying families and communities, according to U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo. He says 40 percent of people arrested by police in Honolulu tested positive for methamphetamine use; 30,000 Honolulu residents are "hard-core users" and as many as three times more are recreational users. The drug abuse creates child abuse -– it is associated with 90 percent of the 2,300 confirmed child-abuse annual cases in the state. In one town on the Big Island, 50 percent of teenagers are addicted to this drug. Drug use has had a role in 44 percent of the state's homicides.

* Highest Theft Rates: The FBI says of all 50 states in the year 2000, Hawaii has the highest larceny-theft crime rate as well as the second-highest overall property crime rate. Hawaii, the FBI reports, had a larceny-theft rate of 3,570 per 100,000 residents in 2000, for such crimes as car break-ins, purse snatchings and shoplifting and an overall property crime rate of 4,955 per 100,000 residents.

* High Rate of Abuse Breaks Up Families: More children in Hawaii are cared for by their grandparents, rather than their parents, than any other state. Next to Washington, D.C., the 13 percent of children in Hawaii who live with their grandparents accounts for the highest statistics in the nation, according to the Hawaii Intergenerational Network. Factors include drugs, domestic violence, incarceration and a poor economy.

* Least Freedom In Education: The Manhattan Institute annually ranks Hawaii's education system the least free in the nation. The report says Hawaii receives low marks for having only one school district for the entire state, making moving to another district essentially impossible and precluding any inter-district choice program. In addition, Hawaii offers no assistance for private school expenses, has few charter schools, and heavily regulates home schooling, the report says.

* Bad School Climate, Teaching, Funding, Results: Education Week in its 270-page report, called "Quality Counts '98: The Urban Challenge" graded states based on 75 indicators of education quality. Hawaii was assigned an "F" in school climate, which included such factors as parental involvement, class size and the number of physical conflicts reported. Education Week also graded Hawaii with a "C" in standards and assessments, a "C-" in quality of teaching, a "D-" in adequacy of education funding and a "C-" in allocating the money. The report documented that 16 percent of Hawaii's 4th- and 8th-graders scored at or above the proficient level on the 1996 National Assessment of Education Progress in math, both well below the national average.

* Worst Technology: Hawaii got an "F" in managing information technology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University and Governing magazine.

* Worst Financial Management: Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs and Governing Magazine gave out additional grades to the state government: a "C-" in financial management; a "B-" in capital management; a "C-" in human resources; and a "C-" in managing for results. The report blamed Hawaii's poor performance on "complacency and a civil service system that hampers managers." Six other states received the same poor grade overall of a C-, and only one -- Alabama, with a "D" -- did worse than Hawaii. Katherine Barrett of Governing magazine, says Hawaii is in "worse financial shape than any other state and has an awful lot of weaknesses."

* Lowest Economic Growth, Per Capita Income: Beacon Hill Institute of Boston's Suffolk University says Hawaii doesn't compete well with only seven states ranking lower in a study of states that continue to see economy growth and high per capita income. The report says Hawaii scores low because of "anticompetitive government policies and the absence of a strong technology or finance sector." The negative rankings, according to the survey, show that Hawaii is at a competitive disadvantage because of its taxes, bond rating, budget deficit, benefits to the unemployed and high cost of living. The top 10 states according to the competitiveness survey are Delaware, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Washington, Vermont, Colorado, New Hampshire, Connecticut Minnesota and California. The states ranking below Hawaii in the survey are Oklahoma, Alabama, Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virginia and Mississippi.

* A Lousy Place to Do Business: The Economist wrote a few years back: "Hawaii cannot blame all its troubles on Asia; it is also a lousy place to do business. Not only is the cost of living roughly a third higher than the American urban average, but government is far more centralized than in other states."

* Most Expensive Place To Conduct Business: Regional Financial Associates survey several years ago reported that Hawaii, next to New York, is the most expensive place in the country to do business, topping the U.S. average by 20 percent. They ranked Honolulu in the top seven most expensive markets nationally in three of the four areas they used to calculate its cost index. It is near the top for office rents, energy costs and taxes. Economy.com says Honolulu is the ninth-most-expensive place to do business in the U.S.

* Most Anti-Entrepreneur Policies: The Small Business Survival Committee publishes an annual report ranking the states according to how friendly their public policies are toward small businesses and entrepreneurs with states scored on 16 separate measures. The 2000 committee index rated Hawaii number 50, or last, with the most anti-entrepreneur policy environment of any state.

* Highest Tax Burden: Lowell Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, says Hawaii has the forth overall highest tax burden in the country.

* Booby Prize for Economic Development: Forbes magazine gave Hawaii the Booby Prize for Economic Development in one of its most recent issues. The story entitled: "Trouble in Paradise: Why doing business in Honolulu has become nearly equivalent to suicide" called Hawaii a "People's Republic" and a "socialistic state in which Fidel Castro would enjoy." The author noted the trend toward raiding special funds, burdens on business -- particularly small business, the high cost of operating in the state and the fact that the city repeatedly borrows money to meet its payroll. The state taxes everything that moves, the author comments.

* Ranking Low on Best Places to Do Business: Honolulu ranks number 177 of 200 on the Forbes list of Best Places to Do Business, "a dismal showing that reflects cellar-level rating in five-year wage growth, five-year job growth and high-tech GDP growth over last year."

* Worst Preparedness for Bio-Terrorism Attacks: The federal government this week ranked Hawaii as one of two states that are "worst-prepared" to distribute medicines after a bio-terrorism attack. Though the governor says this is "absolutely not true" and says Hawaii is one of the best prepared states, a federal government report disputes that claim, saying Hawaii and Wisconsin are ill prepared should there be an attack.

* Millions Wasted by State Government: The state auditor has identified in her audits hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and other tax funded resources being wasted by government bureaucrats, employees and politicians. The state House of Representatives Minority Research office also highlighted more than a half a billion dollars wasted by state government in Hawaii in a recent report published on HawaiiReporter.com. Mike Liu, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, says the state Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii has mismanaged, wasted and abused federal money and will not produce key public records of procurement in a time where this is under investigation by federal authorities. All this waste, sometimes covered by corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, contributes to the high taxes Hawaii's people pay.

* Most Politicians In Prison, Under Indictment, Investigation: A national governing magazine says Hawaii has one of the highest rates of elected officials going to prison, being indicted or under investigation in recent years. Many politicians, from council members to former speaker of the House to powerful state Senators have been put in prison on various charges.

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