TRAFFIC

NEW ZIPPER LANE RULE WILL DOUBLE COMMUTING TIME

The Department of Transportation's decision to increase the minimum ridership requirement for the Zipper Lane to three people comes with great disappointment.

I carpool into town with one other person and enter the Zipper Lane near the H-1/H-2 merge at approximately 7:15 a.m.

The entire trip from Mililani to Downtown takes no more than 45 minutes, even during the school year.

During this time, I rarely see vehicles with more than two people. The new restrictions will double my commute time, and provide no incentive for me to continue carpooling with someone who starts work an hour before me, which will add yet another car to the general lanes.

Does the DOT honestly believe that adding more cars into the general lanes will help ease traffic conditions for everyone?

Changing the requirements will only benefit bus riders and people who have the flexibility to use vanpools. People who currently carpool with two riders will be punished as will single-occupancy drivers, who will have additional cars added to their already-congested lanes.

Thank you, DOT, for costing us more time and money.

I can't wait to see the empty Zipper Lanes.

MENTALLY ILL

STATE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO FIX PROBLEM

Regarding your June 19 editorial "State justified in canceling mental-health contracts," I looked high and low for a statement about failure to deliver services.

I searched for some indication that the clients were being shortchanged by ineffective programs. It wasn't stated. So I make the assumption that the programs work or the editorial would have said otherwise.

Clients are being helped. The Wai'anae facility effectively cares for those most in need. It's all good!

Then, what is the problem if the program works? Is it really about policies and procedures?

I suspect the Department of Health isn't happy that its other treatment facilities fall short in comparison to Hale Na'au Pono, Hawai'i's only nationally accredited community mental health center. The state can't make that claim. But it can shut down the Wai'anae program, and it can find a reason to do so that trumps the needs of those who receive services.

The state can't fix the problem of the mentally ill because it doesn't know how, or it would have long ago. And that likely won't happen until a lawsuit is filed. We have evidence of that in the Felix consent decree.

Let us hope that a lawsuit follows on the heels of this unjustifiable action. Let us hope that the seriously mentally ill in Wai'anae, all 400 of them, will get services of the same caliber elsewhere, even if the state never receives national accreditation. Despite the slim likelihood, let us hope.

CLIMATE

NUMBERS CONFIRM NO WARMING IN 5 YEARS

The U.S. Senate recently rejected the proposed Climate Security Act, which would have required large manufacturers and utilities to substantially reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

If this legislation had passed, many senators believed that it would have further increased our cost of living.

During the 20th century, carbon dioxide concentrations had been steadily increasing and now make up about 0.039 percent of our atmosphere. As a result, the total weight of biomass growing on our planet has increased.

Carbon dioxide is essential to life on our planet because the chlorophyll in our plants and trees utilizes solar energy to absorb the carbon and return the oxygen to the atmosphere.

There was significant global warming during the first 40 years of the 20th century. The warmest year was 1934. Earth then experienced substantial cooling between 1940 and 1975. Between 1975 and the year 2000, there was significant global warming. However, the latest satellite data have confirmed that there has been no warming of the atmosphere during the first eight years of the 21st century.

In addition, a new fleet of 3,000 free-drifting buoys deployed throughout the oceans of the world for the past five years have observed that there has been no warming of our planet's oceans during this five-year period.

ELECTION FINANCING

MCCAIN'S OUTRAGE OVER OBAMA DECISION IS ODD

Sen. John McCain and his followers are outraged that Sen. Barack Obama has opted out of public financing for his campaign. Instead, Obama has decided to opt in to public financing for his campaign using the money he raises from the public.

One of Sen. McCain's bedrock principles is to reduce government spending.

So, I find Sen. McCain's and his followers' outrage to be strange. I would have thought he would be praising Sen. Obama. After all, Sen. Obama has just saved the U.S. taxpayer $85 million, a not-inconsiderable sum.

THREATENED VETO

URGE GOVERNOR TO SIGN ABSENTEE BALLOT BILL

Kupuna all over Hawai'i nei are crying auwe! Gov. Linda Lingle is threatening to veto the permanent absentee ballots bill by July 8.

The Office of Elections supported this good-government bill. Seniors were overjoyed at the passing of one of the most popular measures in years.

The current system requiring re-application every two years discriminates against people who must vote by mail.

Postage alone costs these voters more than $42,000 each time. The absentee-ballot system is safe, and has been used in Hawai'i and several other states for years. The Legislature finally found federal matching funds to implement permanent absentee ballots, costing the state almost nothing; later it will cost us all $200,000 or more.

Please call the governor at 586-0034 or e-mail her at gover nor.lingle@hawaii.gov and tell her you support permanent absentee ballots for Hawai'i for our kupuna and for people with disabilities.

Remind her that Hawai'i ranks last in voter participation.

Auwe indeed!

VETO OF HB 2929 WOULD BE A MISTAKE

Here we go again. Just when Hawai'i is on the verge of sailing off into a pro-business climate with "mandated cooperation" required for the selection of medical examiners in work-injury claims, the governor proposes to jump off the boat and sink the "mandated cooperation" boat with a veto of House Bill 2929.

Wow. What a great time for her to guarantee high work-injury claim costs by encouraging injured workers and employers to continue fighting over the fairness of insurance company doctors. And what a great time to turn her back on the wave of the future ("mandatory cooperation" in resolving work injury claims).

I would have thought that Republicans would want to help small businesses by mandating cooperation in the selection of medical examiners, thereby allowing all parties in a claim to have confidence in the opinions of the medical examiners.

And I would have thought that Republicans would understand what every working person, parent and every child in Hawai'i already knows: Cooperation leads to faster resolution of problems in all aspects of life, including resolving work-injury claims.

But not our Republicans. No. They not only don't like mandatory cooperation, they want to make sure it does not happen in Hawai'i.

HABEAS CORPUS

FAR FROM RELIEVED BY HIGH COURT'S DECISION

On Sunday, Rep. Neil Abercrombie asserted that it was not until this century that the president decided that he has powers above and beyond the law in regard to suspension of habeas corpus ("Bush's powers not unlimited after all," Island Voices).

History shows that Presidents Lincoln and Grant suspended habeas corpus in the 19th century. Franklin D. Roosevelt acted in a similar fashion vis-a-vis internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II.

The Supreme Court decision regarded administration of the Military Commission Act of 2006, a bill that suspended habeas corpus for any alien determined to be an "unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities or having supported hostilities against the United States."

Neither the president nor the majority of senators and representatives who voted "aye" for this act shares the opinion held by five of nine Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the Military Commission Act of 2006.

Basically, are foreign terrorists enemy combatants or criminals? Five members of the Supreme Court, 34 senators, and Neil with 169 of his colleagues in the House want to believe these terrorists are criminals with rights and protections equal to or better than citizens of the United States. I disagree and am far from relieved by this decision.