Program for cars was real clunker

Brilliant. Cash for Clunkers took 700,000 cars off the road that operated at 15 miles per gallon and replaced them with ones that get 25 mpg. At 12,000 miles per year per car, that represents a reduction of 224 million gallons of gas a year or 5 million barrels of oil. Oil at $70 per barrel equates to $350 million. For this, the government spent $3 billion, working out to spending $8.57 in taxes for every $1 of savings.

But that isn't all. Most of the buyers would probably replace their car at some later date, so the savings would be made then without spending any tax dollars. This makes the $8.57 to $1 ratio of spending to savings incredibly higher. Secondly, most of the sales went to foreign car companies.

Our representatives and senators who voted to irresponsibly waste the tax dollars of many for the benefit of a very few, should be rewarded by being voted out of office and replaced with legislators who will spend our hard-earned tax dollars more prudently.

Honolulu airport is embarrassing

We returned yesterday from a brief trip to Boston and noticed some things haven't changed at our dilapidated international airport, while others have.

Things that haven't changed include a critical escalator (one of two required by 99 percent of passengers arriving via the Diamond Head concourse) that remains “;under repair”; - for at least the last eight months.

Meanwhile, barely used escalators (manufactured by the same company) run around-the-clock to the mostly unused second level of the Diamond Head concourse.

Regarding recent changes at the airport: While Oahu hotels and airlines are reducing rates amid a travel recession, the state instead raised parking rates 30 percent, from $10 to $13 per day. One more reason not to travel.

A state government that can't keep escalators running, can't keep restrooms clean and doesn't understand that diminished demand ought to spur

lower prices should be fired. Our airport is an embarrassment - but then so are our roads.

Hawaiian pilots deserve contract

Your article about Hawaiian Airlines pilots and their possible strike (”;HAL pilots say yes to strike,”; Star-Bulletin, Sept. 12) made me wonder if the CEO of Hawaiian Air is really worth the money he is being paid.

Many years ago, CEO salaries were about three times that of the employees; now it is more like 300 times more. That is obscene.

As we have all read in the papers many times over the past few years, Hawaiian Air is first in on-time flights. Who do you think is responsible for that? Certainly not the CEO.

All the pilots are asking for is a contract; I don't think they really want to strike. Two years to negotiate is just stalling. This can't be good publicity for the company; why don't they just settle it and move on? I'm just an outsider looking in, but even I can see the big picture here.

It's not just GOP blocking Obama

Monday's Star-Bulletin editorial cartoon shows a massive elephant carrying a safe on a narrow mountain path. Behind it, obviously trying to pass, is our president in an ambulance. Wednesday's Midweek editorial cartoon has the same theme: An elephant branded with “;GOP”; has its trunk wrapped around Mr. Obama's neck. Our president is holding the health care reform bill in his hands.

Let me get my math straight: 178-256 and 40-59, allowing for independents and vacancies. Looks like there are a few donkeys in the elephant herd.

School buses should go slower

Each day, between 6:30 and 7 a.m., I walk my dogs along Kaneohe Bay Drive. On school days many school buses pass me, all traveling at speeds in excess of the speed limit. Several of them are very large buses that are nearly empty. I seldom see more than two or three students on any one of them. To save money, smaller buses could be used, or the number of runs could be reduced. The speed that these buses are traveling could also be reduced to the speed limit, 25 mph.

Local words fun to use in travels

When my wife and I go traveling, we speak to each other in foreign ports in broken Hawaiian language.

It is definitely effective in stores where the clerk is trying to make a sale or at a restaurant, etc. Talking about kala (money) or wiki wiki (let's get out of here) and simple words like lau lau (food) and aloha and mahalo are fun, too, as we teach foreigners the words of Hawaii.