At Monday's announcement in front of a few hundred supporters and local press, businessman Dave Bing rolled out his vision for Detroit, if elected mayor.

The mayoral candidate stated that if he is elected as mayor he would not take a salary.

Bing, former Piston basketball great and owner of Bing Steel Corporation said he would reallocate the $175,000 plus annual mayoral salary to the police department in order to put more officers on the streets of Detroit.

Bing, who is running in the Feb. 24 special election to become mayor along with 14 other hopefuls, unveiled his plan at Sweet Georgia Brown, a Greektown restaurant in downtown Detroit, owned by Darrell Coleman, another NBA great.

"I've been blessed with two careers," said Bing, at the lunchtime press conference. "I'm financially secure and I don't need to go into this office to make money."

Bing also challenged other candidates seeking to be mayor to fill out an ethics disclosure form that would make public any and all financial interests they may have.

"It's time to eliminate secret conflicts of interest," said Bing, adding that he plans to make his financial disclosure form public on his campaign Web site.

Bing concluded, "As your Mayor, I will fight for: Safe streets, Good jobs, Strong schools, Vital neighborhoods, and Integrity." His full vision statement follows.  More

Obama names Clinton to top role in his team
Defense Secretary Gates to stay on; Holder, Napolitano, Jones, Rice tapped BREAKING NEWS

President-elect Barack Obama is filling his Cabinet at record speed, choosing loyal friends and one-time foes to guide his wartime foreign policy decisions.

Obama on Monday announced Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state and said that President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, is staying on.

Obama also named Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary. He also announced two senior foreign policy positions outside the Cabinet: campaign foreign policy adviser Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador and retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones as national security adviser.

The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.

"In this uncertain world, the time has come for a new beginning — a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century, and to seize the opportunities embedded in those challenges," Obama said.

Pointing to recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai and elsewhere, Clinton said, "America cannot solve these crises without the world and the world cannot solve them without America."

Obama also has settled on former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of Health and Human Services and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be Commerce secretary. Last week, he named key members of his economic team, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as Treasury secretary.

Keep the BlackBerry
Why Obama needs to stay plugged in

Barack Obama is under pressure to do so many things immediately upon taking office Jan. 20. What should be his very first act?

Keeping his BlackBerry.

That's right. Obama must keep that trusty PDA he has come to depend on, despite bogus "security" demands that he give it up.

Before Obama gets to "Yes, We Can," he has to start with "Yes, I Can." And the only way he can be successful in the presidency is if he can stay connected to the world beyond the "splendid isolation" of the presidency. To succeed, he must be constantly exposed to a wide variety of opinions—not just from advisers, experts, pundits and polls, but from his friends.

Obama's hero, Abraham Lincoln, called it "a public opinion bath." He got it corresponding with ordinary people and by flinging open the doors of the White House to anyone who wanted to come by for a visit. These "baths," Lincoln knew, were critical to his success.
Lincoln's approach doesn't work anymore. The world's too big. But technology now offers a way to circumvent the stifling chain of command and help a president get at least a little closer to the truth.

One question a lot of Texans ask these days is, "What happened to the George W. Bush we used to know?" The answer, in part, is that Bush foolishly listened to the security people who made him give up his e-mail account in 2001. The result was that old friends suddenly found they had no way to get through to the president. More than a few watched in horror as he drove the country over the cliff.

Now I'm not arguing that e-mail would have necessarily saved Bush from disaster. It's not as if Bush would have read a message from, say, Brent Scowcroft when the former adviser to Bush "41" was arguing in vain against the Iraq War. But maybe Scowcroft would not have had to infuriate Bush by going public in The Wall Street Journal if he had been able to get through to the president by e-mail. (Scowcroft's efforts to see the president personally were blocked by White House aides).

Or let's say that at a certain point in 2002, a dozen old friends—people he respected and knew had his interests at heart—had e-mailed Bush that he should give sanctions more time. Maybe it would have at least given him pause.

Isolation is the major occupational hazard of the job, wrote George Reedy, a former aide to LBJ, in his classic, "The Twilight of the Presidency." But what was once virtually unavoidable can now be eased by technology that every president should use.  More

Obama and the morning after: Why we too must change...



I haven't posted since election night... In part, I think I was taking a much needed break from blogging, but yet another part of me needed to take a little while and really savor and appreciate the moment. With the election of President-Elect Obama, came the proof; the tangible evidence of the potential we've so long described. All that we've fought for, all the meetings, all the marches, the protests, and demonstrations, were all redeemed that night as he stood before the podium as our newly elected President. Before a multi-racial audience of more than 125,000 people, Barack Obama was equality personified...

His ascension carried with it the promise that buried deep within the crumbling hallways of inner-city schools and off-the-beltway communities, there are pieces of excellence; young men and women, needing only an opportunity and the belief in their own abilities. He showed the world that genius Can be found on a basketball court and that competence and character should always trump color and condition. As a Black man, a life-long community organizer, and as an American, I was moved to tears...   More  

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