In response -
The year 2008 was tenth warmest on record, exceeded by 1998, 2005, 2003, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2001, 2007 and 1997.

That seems to me to be the generally used list of hottest temperatures. So a bit of jumping around but clearly the last ten years or so have been the hottest on record. You can keep using the temperatures in one year, '98, as a basis to deny it but I'm not aware of anyone who has claimed we should see a smooth, steady rise in temperatures - and of course '98 was the year of El Nino (the one people remember as it was so strong), which is recognised as impacting pretty heavily on weather conditions.