By Jack E. Lohman

So here we have it… American Airlines is going bankrupt because of high fuel costs, all when America’s biggest export is… get this… FUEL! All while we are gouging Americans at the gas pump, we are sending our own fuel out of the country.

Because … uh… that’s our “free market!” Fat Cats make more profits this way, which translates to more money for campaign bribes. No matter that when we import a replacement, we pay for additional transport costs.

And we argue about the Keystone XL pipeline between Canada and Texas. Forget that it may be hazardous to central U.S., it is profitable. And that translates to campaign cash. Even if — especially if — we export most of it once we refine it.

And now we have Wisconsin politicians set to give permission to new mining, all while out-of-state executives from mining company Gogebic Taconite are listed at giving $21,500 to Wisconsin politicians. It’s funny how that works.

Have these political jerks no shame?

Or better, does our electorate have no smarts? We MUST force a 100% turnover in November.

By Jack E. Lohman

It would actually be better and cheaper to fix the problem and move on to fixing our state’s economy. Even if only for government employees and paid corporate opt-ins, improved and expanded BadgerCare makes solid financial sense and would be a feather in Gov. Walker’s cap.

Let’s call it what it is: BadgerCare is a non-profit insurance system, funded by the state, that buys services from the same private hospitals and physicians that we all use.

We need this instead of ObamaCare.

Universal BadgerCare makes sense!

Yea, it’s a bad thing to some… doing what has worked so well in other countries. Like Britain’s National Health Service or Canada’s Medicare-for-all or other socialized programs. Even with their wait times (which we would eliminate), their patient outcomes are better than ours.

One of the America’s best is the V.A. healthcare system (though over-burdened at the moment). Salaried physicians and non-profit hospitals (though paid by and owned by the government). Makes all the sense in the world, but “making sense” is not high on politicians lists. Even an optional V.A. buy-in for employers would make sense.

A challenge to the business community…

Today’s healthcare costs are spread into the community and affect the whole economy and business environment. Jobs, taxes, you name it. Our current healthcare system is costing us dearly, and its cost is absorbed by all.

But think about it… 20% of your current healthcare costs are going to the bottom line. Not your company’s bottom line, but to some insurance company’s. That’s not a wise investment, and it does not help you create jobs.

With us all investing in BadgerCare-for-all, we can correct that. Call Gov. Walker!

By Jack E. Lohman

Political corruption begins about two weeks into the first term, when money must be collected for the second term.  Thus if there is no second term this corruption is virtually eliminated.

Political terms should be doubled in length but limited to ONE, so politicians don’t/can’t give away the store to (a) raise cash for a second term and (b) to do stupid things to gain votes for re-election.

We pay a heavy price for a very messy and corrupt political system. If they weren’t political prostitutes we wouldn’t have to worry about it, but they are.  For that they should be ashamed, but we should also be for re-electing them.

With this system, when politicians are newly elected, they do not have to start spending 25-50% of their time dialing for dollars, because there is no second term. They can actually start working for the people as they are being paid to do. Unique, huh?

What if we really elect a winner…

… and the public doesn’t want them ousted? Though rare, I keep thinking of jewels like Senators Bill Proxmire and Gaylord Nelson, who’d still be respected politicians if alive today.

There is a solution: an extraordinary hurdle showing strong public support of overriding the system. Let the incumbent run for a second term on two conditions: (a) that he or she collects signatures exceeding 25% of the previous vote total, just to get on the ballot, and (b) that he or she wins 80% of the total votes to win the second term.

Or whatever…

Who could complain??? It would not cost taxpayers a penny, as would public funding of campaigns. And it wouldn’t violate the constitutional problems ala Citizens United. It’s a winner!!!

But oh, if a Fat Cat has invested heavily in a politician and they want them to stay “bought,” they will object to this system. Yet if the Fat Cats double down on their money the 80% requirement will kill their chances.

If they were not taking cash bribes from both sides of the issues, business and union, I doubt that any of us would care which party is elected.

By Jack E. Lohman

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could trust NATO or some other World governing body to execute elections when a country’s strife becomes so great that its citizens are being routinely killed? By their own government! Like in Syria or Egypt II?

Let’s suppose that via a vote of the major countries they were able to say, “Now wait guys, we met and have determined that only a new vote will be fair to all and minimize bloodshed. If you wish, we will help conduct the vote. The old regime can also run for reelection and if they win it will be a reaffirmation of the citizens. And we NATO nations will help stabilize the situation.”

“But if the old regime loses it’s a turnover time, and we’ll make departure of the current regime safe and comfortable.”

And then, separate the country into regions for each religion. I think they call that federalism.

Am I looking through rose-colored glasses? Alternatively, we could just say “OR ELSE!”

By Jack E. Lohman

Rocky Anderson of the new Justice Party is an attorney and former mayor of Salt Lake City, and very well thought of. Hopefully he’ll get the 10,000 signatures he’ll need to get on the ballot in Wisconsin. One of his major issues is eliminating our corrupt political system, and he refuses all contributions over $100.

He’s also very much in favor of universal healthcare, but I expect that he knows that until we get politicians off the payroll of the insurance companies that’s DOA.

See him answer one-on-one questions HERE.

By Jack E. Lohman

So now we have the conservative Republicans trying to out-conservative the other conservative Republicans. And some are complaining about Obama imposing his views on the public, when they want to impose their own restrictions. And Republicans criticizing Obama when it is they who blocked progress!

Does that sound like a politician or what?

I absolutely abhor abortions, but I think this is a very difficult decision that must be made by the woman alone. Certainly not me and certainly not her politician! It’s hard enough as it is, spending the rest of ones life wondering whether the decision was right or wrong, perhaps regretting it, she surely doesn’t need me or some busy-body politician sticking their nose in the matter.

I won’t go hunting because I cherish life, and fortunately I’ve never been pregnant.

And this idea of taxpayers funding the Right to Life or Planned Parenthood, or Viagra or vasectomies or contraception? What part of NO TAX MONEY is so hard to understand?

Now even I’m confused. Am I a right-wing wacko or left-wing wacko?

Let the dogs fight.

And I’m a christian, though not a good one. But I’m absolutely unconcerned if the Baptists are better people than the Catholics; or vise versa. I think both the Tea Partiers and Occupiers are frustrated, and fighting against political corruption whether they know it or not.

What I really care about is whether the candidate is going to represent me or his campaign funders. I care if he is corrupt.

So far I’ve been convinced of one thing: neither Obama nor any of his Republican challengers are fit for the job.

By Jack E. Lohman

The judicious use of roundabouts makes sense, like the one at Hwy 164 and County Line in Richfield which has totally eliminated traffic bottlenecks.

But at Good Hope and Townline Rds in Lannon? Give me a break. Doesn’t there first have to be traffic? This one clearly smacks of payback to the Road Builders that contribute nearly $1 million per year to Wisconsin politicians … $174k to Governor Walker alone.

And now they are planning another in Richfield next to a school, converting a 100% 4-way stop to a 0% stop for a roundabout. Whaaatt???

Yes, rebuilding the Marquette Interchange added (temporary) jobs, though it wasn’t needed, as did the Hwy 45 southbound work in Menomonee Falls which moved the left-hand Appleton exit to the right side but kept the two-lane bottleneck.

Now all of those workers are needlessly reworking the Mitchell Airport interchange which will add probably $10 billion to the taxpayer roles.

Damn we are rich!

Indeed infrastructure work adds jobs… temporarily. But they are also taxpayer-funded jobs, thus we are pulling from one pocket to stuff the other. And satisfy the road builders and politicians, of course, sending money again from the poor to the rich.

I just love that about Wisconsin politics.

But think about this for a moment.

Instead of continually extending unemployment benefits, why not pull a Tommy Thompson? Not work-for-welfare, which was great, but let’s help these unemployed workers get re-educated in different fields… like health care and technology.

Sensible education at taxpayer expense! ONCE … not over and over!

Think about it!!! Investing to get people OFF of the unemployment rolls rather than sustaining a bad situation!

By Jack E. Lohman

After all of the greed plays out and there are no more public assets to capture, and it gets too risky to stay here, the Fat Cats and their politician co-conspirators will depart for their own safe island.

Yea, but who is going to protect them from the greed of their security guards?

I don’t think I’d want to create that for my family, especially with more guns than ever being sold today. Where are their heads?

Most CEOs are pretty decent people…

But why are the 80% of good guys not controlling the 20% who are crooks? And why are our politicians in with the bad guys??? (Aside from “that’s where they get their campaign dollars.”)

This is not a pretty picture…

America will soon join the growing list of countries whose people are rebelling against their corrupt governments. If not a rebellious takeover, which most certainly will bring out the guns, then a military coup of America’s government is inevitable.

Constitutional right to free speech? Don’t even think of it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way…

And it won’t be if we are smart in 2012. How about this:

Let’s publicize all of the spending on a per-candidate basis, and then vote against the one that had the most outside spending. Let’s make them pay a price for their corruption!

By Jack E. Lohman

The benefits of hydraulic fracturing can range from totally positive (jobs!) to totally negative (water contamination). To blindly support or oppose this new mining technique without honest evidence is not just foolish, but could be deadly.

First up are the scientists, some of whom have accepted cash grants from the industry and discount all claims of harm. And some scientists who argue that fracking is unsafe, but stay away from disclosing the financial conflicts of interest of their buddies.

Then there are the politicians who pocket the campaign dollars disbursed by the fracking industry, all to buy deregulations, and to spout this “wise and safe” form of energy claimed by the hand-picked scientists. Prostitute is too good a word for them.

And then there’s the Mainstream Media, the John, which laughs all the way to the bank as they pocket the bribes that pay for the political ads. Where is the FCC when you need them?

So no, I don’t buy the sugar-coating and refuse to drink their Kool-Aid.

It is not a pretty sight

I want to know if fracking is as safe as the industry claims, and I want my board of directors (our politicians) to assess this without taking campaign bribes from that very industry. Too much to ask for?

Our problem is the same on every issue critical to the survival of the U.S. economy… political corruption. Get rid of the current political crooks and perhaps we can eliminate campaign bribery. A 100% turnover in 2012 is necessary, regardless of party.

By Jack E. Lohman

That just sucks.

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Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry will not be on Virginia ballot

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have failed to qualify for Virginia’s March 6 Republican primary, a development that adds to the challenges faced by the recent frontrunner in the GOP presidential race.

They failed to get 10,000 signatures to get on the Virginia ballot.

How are you liking it so far, guys

By Jack E. Lohman

To be clear, our problems are not “government” or “corporations,” as these are artificial entities.

Our problems are due — 100% — to the greedy leaders of each, CEOs and politicians, who have found a slush fund that is funded by other people… the public they should be protecting. Most certainly by their taxes but also in many cases by their 401(k)’s and housing values.

For the record I support the Walker recall and the protests by the right-wing Tea Party and left-wing Occupy groups, and even our local Citizens for Responsible Government. Because they are all anti-government-corruption, whether they know it or not.

I want them ALL nipping at their heels and keeping politicians on their toes.

Think about it!

Would we be in so many damnable wars were it not for the fact that our politicians are paid by the defense industry to be hawks rather than doves?

Would our nation’s economy be so trashed were it not that our politicians gave away the store to the companies that preferred their products be assembled with foreign labor at one-tenth the cost?

So here we go again!

Bottom line: I simply don’t care what happens in the presidential elections. Whether Obama wins or he doesn’t, he’ll be no different from any Republican that may win. I prefer an independent, but so many plan on running that only Ranked Choice Voting would allow a win. But our politicians have stacked the deck against even that.

Most important to our nation is a complete turnover in congress! No current politician should remain, either in the Senate or House or the state legislature.

But we have lefties believing their guy is honest and righties believing the same, when neither is the case. They all must go.

By Jack E. Lohman

The time is here. The problem-countries are falling the way they should, by the hand of their own people.

But the politicians who make the decisions on our end haven’t gotten the message. These countries fell because their people got fed up and realized that together they could take over and oust their government.

Come to think of it, that’s happening here too.

But now that the dominoes have started falling we should bring our troops home. From everywhere. Put them on the Mexican border and stop the killing by the drug gangs. Let’s help Mexico, if they want us, and let’s mitigate the drug problems by legalizing and controlling drugs.

And as long as we are paying the troops anyway, let’s pay them for nation building here instead.

No, I’m not really that naive.

I know full well that our politicians get paid more for creating a broken system than keeping a good one. They get paid to send our troops to war, by the defense industry, and don’t get paid to keep them at home. Right now they are getting more money from oil and coal than from the clean (solar/wind) industries.

And they are getting paid to keep taxes low for the wealthy 1%, even if it blocks tax cuts for the middle class. And the R’s are getting paid to pass the Keystone Pipeline, and the Dems not.

I’d sure feel better if they were only getting paid by the taxpayers.

It is not a pretty sight, but let’s hope the voters can remember.

By Jack E. Lohman

Yea, it doesn’t matter what your other issues, they are controlled by this one. If you really want legislation tilted in your favor, send money!!! To yours and the politicians he tells you to send to (sorry, in polite terms that’s “support”).

The candidate is Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah. Here is the CNN Video and Democracy Now Video. Their web site: http://www.justicepartyusa.org

Take one of his issues, for example. I’m not convinced that humans contribute to the global warming problem, but the cash flow from the special interests sure point in that direction. The vast majority of scientists say humans do contribute, but could those scientists be corrupted by the solar industry that would benefit from a “green” fixation? Perhaps.

I would prefer that my own board of directors (Congress) sort this out and get to the bottom of it, but they are either taking money from that very Solar industry or the competing oil and coal industries, so I can’t trust them for an honest answer.

So there is only one answer: get the bribes out of the system! And that’s exactly what the Justice Party promises.

Voting for a third-party is difficult

It’s called the “wasted vote syndrome” … but its time has come. I see absolutely zero difference in the overall (and ultimate) votes of Obama and Romney or Gingrich. They will ALL lean toward the moneyed interests that bribe their parties. I do not care who wastes my money, I don’t want it wasted at all!

Yes the Justice Party will compete with the Green Party, just as the D’s compete with the R’s.

But any party can get a plurality and win, and I’d rather see a third party in the presidency to put balance into the system.

By Jack E. Lohman

At least not here, and they are getting away with it because both political parties are on the take from those very corporations. And the CEOs are taking the cash rather than distributing it to employees.

We are still politically diverted, fighting the little fires while the special interests are sending their money where it counts… to politicians. And it’s working.

And the Republicans in the debates???

Rule #1… act like adults. Save your barbs for Obama, who well deserves them.

Rule #2… fight the core problem, political corruption. It’s rampant on both sides, both at the state and federal level, and THAT is what’s killing our economy.

Like, balancing the budget by cutting BadgerCare???

Good move, Governor Walker!

Most certainly the politicians don’t want to increase revenues by raising taxes on corporations or the wealthy CEOs. So we’ve eliminated the jobs of the poor and are now attacking their health care!!! Makes all the sense in the world (Not!).

Were it not for the massive campaign contributions from the insurance industry, our politicians would do the right thing… implement a single-payer Medicare-for-all system. We’d use the administrative waste to provide health care to all, and at the same time save the nation $400 billion per year.

But that makes too much sense, and our politicians are not paid to make sense. They are paid (by the special interests) to keep the system broken.

2012 is the year that you and I must send a message…
… to vote against the status quo.

By Jack E. Lohman

At this point I don’t care whether Obama or his Republican counter-crook makes it. One is as bad as the other and either will perpetuate the problem. So I plan to vote for the best independent available, and preferably it will be a progressive. Or Buddy Roemer.

But key is getting rid of the crooks in the House of Representatives, then the Senate, and one citizen group has a solid idea on how to ensure that “citizen representatives” are high on the candidate list. It’s called goooh.com (pronounced “Go”).

Yes there are Lefties taking advantage of food stamps and Medicaid, and Righties snubbing their noses at those who don’t have jobs (like ‘jobs’ are so plentiful!). And the reverse is also true. But worse are those who are drinking the political Kool-Aid, casting stones at the other side while our politicians pick our pockets behind the scenes.

“Diversion” is their key strategy, and it is working.

Let’s get a clue! These politicians are not our friends!!!

We need a major turnover, first in the House!

“GOOOH is NOT a political party. It is a system that will allow you and your neighbors to choose, among yourselves, a candidate who will truly represent your district.”

Whether R or D, they will be citizen selected. There are 435 House districts, and the same 435 Goooh districts with one goal: to replace their House member with a citizen-selected candidate. Maybe that’s the incumbent, but with an acceptance rating of 9% that’s not likely. These guys are there for one reason, and that’s because the moneyed interests have given them enough bribes to blow the opposition out of the water.

2012 is a must-change year! We have no alternative but to throw the bastards out!!!