Gary Johnson is running a clean and honest campaign for POTUS.

Sadly, many people haven't.. They only hear about The Dems and Reps from the media..

Gov. Johnson ran in the Republican presidential primary this year. He was a successful governor from New Mexico. I believe he was allowed into a few debates and was given a little air time.

Here's an interesting piece on Gary Johnson: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201111/gary-johnson-republican-candidate-debate-interview

Gov. Johnson has a Georgia supporter page:
http://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaGJ

@JasonBrooks
journalists are such idealists. This imaginary political figure you envision want be elected. This is made possible by gerrymandering, the "Citizens United" decision, the profit needs of the corporate media, and citizen apathy.

@JasonBrooks
For example, Hispanics in Georgia have not registered to vote in large numbers and they are going to get the s#@t kicked out of them by politicians and the establishment until they do. Blacks should not rest on their gains because lurking around the corner are voter ID laws to restrict their power to vote ,if that fails than jail for smoking a joint and then take away the right to vote. better yet, lets take those prison inmates and put them to work harvesting crops now that all the Mexicans have been forced to leave. This is a real proposal that I have seen. Some would call it slavery.

@JasonBrooks(sorry I left off part the statement)
@JasonBrooks
Our founding fathers were more concerned about their economic interests;ie,the slave question vs. the ideal of as stated in the declaration of Independence," all men all created equal". Nothing has changed economic issues come first. Hope comes from realizing that you are not going to get your share of the economic pie unless you have political power. For example, Hispanics in Georgia have not registered to vote in large numbers and they are going to get the s#@t kicked out of them by politicians and the establishment until they do. Blacks should not rest on their gains because lurking around the corner are voter ID laws to restrict their power to vote ,if that fails than jail for smoking a joint and then take away the right to vote. better yet, lets take those prison inmates and put them to work harvesting crops now that all the Mexicans have been forced to leave. This is a real proposal that I have seen. Some would call it slavery.

@OICUR12
Voter ID laws are being enacted all over the United States by Republican governments to try to suppress minority votes which tend to vote Democratic. .Florida and Pennsylvania have been in the news the most. For example, about 750000 minority voters don't drive a car in Philadelphia and therefore do not have a drivers license (picture ID)They will have to get one. All kinds of stories are immerging but I'll just give you just one. A person was delivered by a midwife in South Carolina and never had a birth certificate .He migrated to Philadelphia and used public transportation. He has no picture ID but had voted for many years. There are many other stories like this. The Republican speaker even bragged about this as an excellent tool to suppress the Democratic vote. The excuse for these laws was to prevent voter fraud even through no cases had been reported in Pennsylvania. These laws mainly affect students, minorities, and the elderly.Yes Georgia requires this and it does suppress the vote.

@Jimmy
You seem to be proficient in the use of a computer so why don't you or anybody else just google "VOTER ID LAWS" and in particular look at what the conservative organization ALEC is doing.

@Jimmy,
I meant to say Pennsylvania 750,000 and 437000 in Philadephia either way it's still an outrage.

The suppressive effects of VOTER ID LAWS are well-documented: 11 percent of Americans—approximately 23 million citizens of voting age—lack proper photo ID and, as a result, could be turned away from the polls on Election Day. Those without photo ID are disproportionately low-income, disabled, minority, young, and older voters. Numerous non-partisan organizations have debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, the purported basis for these laws. In 2011.
Republicans have advanced photo ID legislation in at least 35 states. If these 35 states enact a photo ID law, they collectively will spend at least $276 million, and possibly as much as $828 million, in the first four years alone. At a time when states are experiencing huge budget shortfalls, it would be an enormous waste to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to disenfranchise voters as the Republicans are trying to do.

If the suppressed individuals can't get to the ID gettin' place, how do they get to the polls? And what about absentee?
I personally don't want anyone voting unless they can prove that they are allowed to vote. We have laws against felons and I thought illegals.

As expected, the comments have degenerated into a "he said-she said" argument based on political beliefs. The reality of the quest for an honest politician (at the presidential level) is that hard core conservatives and liberals will remain faithful to their political philosophy and the independent and undecided voters, (who actually decide election outcomes) are too easily swayed by campaign rhetoric. History has proven that fence-sitting voters will select the candidate who best markets himself as the deliverer of an individual voter's wants. The candidate who claims he will cut taxes and increase benefits has always beaten the one who states the reality that you can't do both. So in essence, voters say, "tell me what I want to hear, even if it's impossible to achieve, and I'll vote for you", Anyone needing proof of that need look no further than our current president.

Getting back to the original post, I think Romney should say, "I'll release the five years if you'll release your college transcripts."

makes sense to me, Ed.

I'll third that one.

I have a theory and it is based on the book "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, published in 1902.
Mankind is only as good, ultimately, as the level of accountability that is thrust on him. The larger the Government, the more complex the issues. The more complex the issues, the more difficult becomes accountability. The less accountable people are, the more corrupt they become. The larger the government, the less likely anyone will know a politician for his/her true self.
Words are just that. We all know, from the bible for example, that any given phrase can be interpreted and twisted to mean whatever the reader wants.
We learn much more by watching one's actions than listening to their words. With the government at it's current size and breadth, we cannot watch as individuals.
It seems to me that the only way we will ever know what is in the hearts of those who lead us is to make Federal Government much smaller and bring as much responsibility as possible back to the individual States.
As common citizens, we can monitor what is happening in our own State much more effectively than we can monitor the Feds. We would also be more empowered to do something regarding an issue we support/oppose.

As evidence I offer the recent defeat of the TSPLOST in Georgia. Georgians spoke and the politicians (90% of whom were for the TSPLOST) were forced to listen. I believe if this sort of proposal were set up at a Federal level, it would have been much easier for these politicians to sneak it by us, just as they have their raises, special retirement plans, special Health care plans, etc.
For those who want to blast me, please understand that I am just a mechanic, do not have a college education and do not consider myself the sharpest tool in the shed. I am only expressing my opinion as I see things and am open to any reasonable insight.

I'm confused here: Do you want accountability or integrity from your politicians?

From what I'm reading, you want rules to follow. From what I've seen recently, our local politicians are mostly unopposed this election cycle, so they're using it to bolster their public perception of themselves. To me, integrity is being able to have a straightforward and relevant conversation with a constituent, regardless of the bad news.

For accountability, I've been trying to come up with some sort of metric or way to measure it - how would you measure accountability here? For instance, if you vote for the TIA and then came out against T-SPLOST, is that two black eyes?

When the charter school vote comes up, if they voted for the law, but support the opposition, is that being accountable? We as a group often want things to be easily explained, and I find that we don't elect great communicators.

Hi Mike and Jeff:

In some instances, I have found it difficult to get information on a local level. I have yet to get an explanation from Gwinnett County Public Schools of how they determined that they got $6 million for paying Gwinnett Chamber salaries.

I also tried for 6 months to get an explanation of what Gwinnett County got in return for paying the chamber $500,000 in 2011, and still have no explanation. Because of that, I had to file a complaint with the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission. The county’s contract required the chamber to lobby for transportation issues, and reports made from the chamber to the county said:

“We have hired the campaign managers, polling firm, and professional fundraisers and will raise $6 million to fund grassroots to media campaign goals in the 10 counties. The Gwinnett Chamber/PG will lead local efforts to educate and advocate for the one cent sales tax for transportation through communication, a speakers bureau, and public meetings.”

What are we left to conclude when the county is silent after 6 months of attempting to get an explanation that would reasonably explain this? This is particularly disappointing after elected officials promised that their # 1 priority was restoring trust in government.

Sabrina- In my opinion you are right. Not that we want to start a debate again about TSPLOST. Government is very scary these days. I don't know about you, but the results of the TSPLOST plan, which I voted against, is the first time I ever felt my vote has counted, and it felt good.
The fact that public monies were spent to try to brainwash that very public into thinking the TSPLOST was a good idea is appalling. At least we caught them at it and shut them down. On a Federal level, they could have spun the whole thing right past everybody because we would would still be trying to wade through the complexity of the bill to really know all of it's ramifications.

Mike - I took our conversation here and expanded on it a bit to see if we could try an expirement in accountability and integrity with my State Senator, Renee Unterman. She sits on the Committee on Assignments (Responsible for Leadership Appointments) and the Rules Committee. So, she is in a unique position to urge for Don Balfour to be removed as chairman from the Rules committee, as his ethics shennanigans have left the state senate's reputation in shambles.

http://buford.patch.com/blog_posts/accountability-ethics-reform-decision

Summary of Republican Convention:
Republicans complain that Democrats and Obama have not cleaned up the mess Republicans created quickly enough and told alot of verifiable lies in the process.Also picture Clint Eastwood with a voucher shopping for medical insurance to replace Medicare.See you in Charlotte.

Good point George. Thankfully our wonderful free enterprise system has allowed Clint Eastwood to earn $375 million.

Republican Corporate Welfare
Despite their frequently expressed laissez-faire beliefs, many Republican Governors have each presided over deals in which huge sums of taxpayer money have been handed over to large corporations in the name of economic development. The Romney campaign,had its convention themes delivered by some of the biggest proponents of corporate welfare.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gave praise to Boeing, saying that her state "was blessed to welcome a great American company that chose to stay in our country to continue to do business." She failed to mention that Boeing's decision to locate its second Dreamliner assembly line in Charleston was more than a little influenced by a state and local subsidy package estimated to be worth more than $900 million.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell -- who told the convention "Big government didn't build America!" -- agreed to give up to $14 million in subsidies to Northrop Grumman to relocate its headquarters to northern Virginia. The move was motivated by a need to be near the company's big customer, the Pentagon, so the subsidies were probably unnecessary and could be seen as a reward for the large contributions the company made to his election campaign.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, demands by companies threatening to move their operations out of state unless they got big subsidy deals. Kasich's administration negotiated $100 million packages with both Diebold Inc. and American Greetings Corp.I could site many more.

George said: "Blacks should not rest on their gains because lurking around the corner are voter ID laws to restrict their power to vote". Explain to us exactly what this means. It's not the first time that you've implied that minorities (especially blacks) can't do something because of an evil republican. If poverty is a problem (knows no racial boundaries in case you didn't know that), then we have programs for poor americans of all races and creeds if they have a need. We also have churches looking to help their fellow man everywhere. That is, if they are poor (which is more likely the elderly before it will be a minority). I wonder if you realize how condescending this must be to a black american to hear you say something like that. All the black folk I know have good jobs, nice cars and decent families. Not sure I'm getting what you're trying to say. Could you please explain (and don't use the very discredited huffington post for your quotes please). :)
And, Dave, injecting anti-intellectualism into a discussion?????? Go read that again. He was saying that the average hard working man is something to be proud of. You had a problem with that??? Oh wait...lol

...and btw...that mechanic deserves to make a lot of money doing a service that I can't do for myself. If you can do his job, then welcme to it. But if you can't...pay a professional.
I do my job the best that i can and people pay me for my skills. I don't get paid much, so my dividends come from the satisfaction I get for doing my job well. Of course, it does bite a bit when my pocketbook gets raided by federal politicians for yet another tax.

@Tammy Osier
Your comments make no sense to me and also attempts to distort and juxtaposition my remarks. Please read again. I'm not sure you understand. These new voter suppression laws are of a great concern not only to minorities but to everyone that believes in democracy. For a better understanding just google "VOTER ID LAWS" as a starter. More later.

@ Sandy
The Republicans have figured out that one way to suppress the traditional Democratic vote is to require photo ID to vote.Let me use the state of Pennsylvania as an example where about 750,000 voters are affected.About 437000 minority, and elderly,voters don't drive a car in Philadelphia they use public transportation and therefore do not have a drivers license (picture ID)They will have to get one. All kinds of stories are immerging how difficult this is, but I'll just give you just one. A person was delivered by a midwife in South Carolina and never had a birth certificate .He migrated to Philadelphia and used public transportation. He has no picture ID but had voted for many years.He will now have to get a picture ID but a birth certificate is required and he doesn;t have one.Hence he cannot vote. There are many other stories like this. The Republican speaker in Pennsylvania even bragged about this as an excellent tool to suppress the Democratic vote. The excuse for these laws was to prevent voter fraud even through no cases had been reported in Pennsylvania. These laws mainly affect students, minorities, and the elderly.On a positive note ,the courts have struck down some of these voter ID laws as being unconstitutional in Texas, Alabama, and parts of Florida .Keep in mind ,that these right wing tactics are being pushed by an organization known as ALEC (American Legislative Executive Council) funded by people like the Koch brothers and big corporations.

The suppressive effects of VOTER ID LAWS are well-documented: 11 percent of Americans—approximately 23 million citizens of voting age—lack proper photo ID and, as a result, could be turned away from the polls on Election Day. Those without photo ID are disproportionately low-income, disabled, minority, young, and older voters. Numerous non-partisan organizations have debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, the purported basis for these laws. In 2011.
Republicans have advanced photo ID legislation in at least 35 states. If these 35 states enact a photo ID law, they collectively will spend at least $276 million, and possibly as much as $828 million, in the first four years alone. At a time when states are experiencing huge budget shortfalls, it would be an enormous waste to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to disenfranchise voters as the Republicans are trying to do.

@ all
I have no problem with a voter ID card but they should be free and easy to get. The state should devote all the resources to insure that the groups most affected not only have a voter ID card but are registered to vote as well. The requirements should be to not put an undue burden on the citizens as some states have tried to do. Our problem is not people voting illegally. It is low voter turnout ,look at the last election.

We should be embarrassed to see how American Idol manages to get a high voter turnout and surprisingly acceptable results consistently, yet we cannot find a way to prevent four hour lines at the polls for a Presidential election we should have known was coming up and how many estimated voters there would be at each location.