Jeb Bush's bid for Senate could clear GOP field--By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer Brendan Farrington, Associated Press Writer

Still popular in Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he's interested in the seat Sen. Mel Martinez is giving up, and the field of possible candidates could quickly narrow to make way for the president's younger brother.

Bush, 55, won praise from Democrats and Republicans alike for leading the state through eight hurricanes over a two-year period. He used standardized testing to overhaul the education system, was credited with making government more efficient and lowered taxes to make Florida more business-friendly.

While his older brother, soon-to-be former President George W. Bush, has been so unpopular that he has been a liability to many Republican candidates this year, Jeb Bush remains a popular figure here.

"I hope that Gov. Bush gets in the race. In my personal opinion, he understands public policy better than any other potential candidate looking at that race, by far," said former state House Speaker Allan Bense, who was contemplating his own bid. Bense said he would not run if Bush entered. "It would clear the Republican field, I'm sure."

Martinez, who served in President Bush's Cabinet and supported an immigration proposal unpopular with Republicans, has struggled to boost his approval ratings because of his close ties to the president. He said Tuesday he was not seeking a second term because he wanted to spend more time with his family.

The Cuban native who fled to America when he was 15 made his announcement early to give other Republicans time to mount their campaigns — and a list of potential candidates immediately exploded. Several Florida congressman indicated they were considering a bid, along with about a half dozen other former or current state officials.

The former Florida governor said Wednesday in an e-mail: "I am considering running," but didn't elaborate. A separate statement from spokeswoman Kristy Campbell sounded like the former governor was ready to get back into politics. "He will give it thoughtful consideration in the coming weeks and months," the statement said. "Governor Bush hopes to play a constructive role in the future of the party, advocating ideas and polices to get the conservative cause back on track."

The statement means the former governor is all but certain to get in the race, said a person familiar with senior Republicans in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity so they could talk more freely about the former governor's approach. Bush's consideration — even if tentative in public — is a strategic one, to discourage other Republicans from jumping in, the person said.

By doing this, the former governor, for whom raising money and building an operation will not be hard, doesn't need to get started campaigning for some time, the person said.

Democrats said they planned to put up a strong candidate.

"Jeb Bush will not clear both fields," said Screven Watson, a former state Democratic Party executive director. "If a Bush is on the ticket ... a lot of money will be coming in against him."
But the former governor has remained popular in Florida even as his brother's approval ratings declined.

A Quinnipiac University poll taken December 2006 during Jeb Bush's final month in office found 57 percent of Florida voters thought Bush was a great or good governor. Only 10 percent said he was a bad governor. That poll also showed 59 percent of voters disapproved of the job President Bush was doing, compared with 38 percent who approved.

"Florida voters have always been able to distinguish between Jeb Bush and George Bush. It's that simple. They thought he was a good governor, they thought his brother was a lousy president," said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac's polling institute. "The things that made president Bush unpopular were not things that Gov. Bush had to deal with — the national economy and the war."

The former governor has spent much of his time since leaving office promoting education policy as the founder and president of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. As governor, he put a strong emphasis on standardized testing to keep teachers and schools accountable and passed a voucher program that allowed students in failing public schools to attend provide schools at taxpayer expense. That program was later ruled unconstitutional.

While President-elect Barack Obama won Florida, the state's politics are more purple than red or blue. In 2006, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist won by a large margin, as did Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, and Florida Republicans continued their control of the state Legislature after last month's election.
___
Associated Press writer Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

Victorious Chambliss looks for bigger role in GOP--By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer Shannon Mccaffrey, Associated Press Writer

A double digit win in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff could make Saxby Chambliss a star in a Republican party hungry for fresh leadership. Just weeks ago, he was battling for political survival after neither he nor his Democratic opponent got more than 50 percent of the vote in the general election, forcing Tuesday's runoff, which Chambliss won handily.

Now, with his party searching for new leaders and a new identity, he could gain a prominent national profile, political experts said.

Chambliss, 65, will return for a second term in Washington, this time as a self-proclaimed firewall against President-elect Barack Obama and his Democratic agenda.

His win — which denied Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate majority — was a rare bit of good news for Republicans, reeling this year after ceding more seats in Congress and losing the White House. He beat Democrat Jim Martin 57 percent to 43 percent.

"He's looked upon as the one bright spot for Republicans this election cycle," said Brian Darling, director of Senate Relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

"Chambliss winning this runoff by such a significant margin is a sign that not all is lost for Republicans. They still have a heartbeat. The party will remember that."

Chambliss acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday that the runoff has boosted his national stature. That, combined with his rising seniority in the Senate's depleted GOP ranks, will give him a louder voice.

Already he was offering his tattered party advice, saying his victory proves the GOP needs to get back to its conservative roots.

"The basic principles that Ronald Reagan talked about in the '80s are just as important today," Chambliss said. "If we return to those basic core values we can continue to be successful in future elections."

He said he expects his runoff campaign, which emphasized a meat-and-potatoes GOP menu of low taxes, small government, gun rights and opposition to abortion, to be a model for Republicans trying to regroup in 2010.

Such issues play well among the conservative base in reliably Republican Georgia, where Chambliss had been expected to cruise to a general election win Nov. 4. But that was before the economy went sour and he was forced to defend his vote for the $700 billion financial services bailout.

Martin was helped along by a surge of Democratic voters energized by Obama.

The race was thrown into a runoff after none of the three Senate candidates crossed the 50 percent threshold. Martin, a 63-year-old former state lawmaker, had been trounced two years earlier in the lower-profile race for lieutenant governor. But he only trailed Chambliss by 3 percentage points Nov. 4.

With the balance of power in the Senate at stake, both candidates drew big political names to Georgia. The national parties spent millions of dollars on ads.

GOP presidential candidate John McCain came to the state to stump for Chambliss, as did most of the Republican White House field.

Martin drew visits from former President Bill Clinton and his Vice President Al Gore.

On the runoff campaign's final day, Chambliss brought in McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who drew cheering crowds of thousands at four rallies around the state. Martin — looking to attract black voters critical to the state's Democratic base — gathered with the rappers Ludacris and T.I., convicted of federal weapons charges.

Still, Obama voters did not come back to the polls for Martin, at least not in large enough numbers. Obama never paid a visit to the state for Martin, although he did record a radio ad and an automated phone call for him.

About 2.1 million Georgians, about 35 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's runoff. That's a little more than half of the 3.7 million who voted in the general election.

Franken pulls closer, but Coleman leads in Minn.--

Democrat Al Franken caught a couple of breaks Tuesday as the recount in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race drew closer to a finish, though not enough to undo Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's persistent lead.

As Ramsey County wrapped up its recount, officials there discovered and tallied 171 ballots that weren't counted on election night. Franken gained 37 votes on Coleman's lead.

Coleman led by 215 votes out of 2.9 million cast before the recount. The lead has bounced up and down since the recount began, but the exact margin is difficult to know because both sides have put thousands of ballots in limbo through challenges. The disputed ballots won't be sorted out until a canvassing board meeting that begins Dec. 16.

Through Tuesday, Coleman's margin was 303, a comparison made possible because counties are reporting recount numbers that compare directly with their precincts' Nov. 4 results. However, those numbers could still shift as the last counties complete their work by Friday.

Ramsey County elections chief Joe Mansky said the ballots were from a machine that broke down early on Election Day in a precinct in Maplewood. The machine was replaced, but the ballots in question weren't fed through again.

Franken gained 91 votes and Coleman gained 54. The rest went to other candidates.

"That's why we do the recount," Mansky said. "That's why we're doing everything by hand — so we can discover those kinds of errors."

Coleman's attorney, Fritz Knaak, said the campaign accepts Mansky's explanation but had lawyers double-checking the numbers. "We're looking into it," he said.

Marc Elias, Franken's attorney, said the revelation of new ballots underscored the importance of making sure that every vote is counted. "This is precisely why we have urged, as strongly as we have, every election official — at the county level, at the state level, everyone — look for any ballots that might be missing."

In a letter, the secretary of state's office directed Mansky to prepare a special report on the discovery for presentation to the Canvassing Board next week.

"We would like an explanation from you as to how this error was made and went unnoticed until now," Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann wrote. "Given the magnitude of the difference, we request that you take steps to re-verify the number of individuals who voted in Maplewood Precinct 6, to reassure both this office and the public that these newly found votes were validly cast."

Ramsey County, the state's second-largest, finished its recount on Tuesday; all of the state's 87 counties are supposed to finish by Friday. A belt of counties where Coleman fared well on Election Day were due to start their recounts Wednesday.

Franken got another glimmer of hope Tuesday when Gelbmann sent another letter to recount officials directing them to sort all absentee ballots into five piles — those rejected for one of four statutory reasons, and a fifth pile for those that appear to have been mistakenly rejected.

Franken's lawyers have indicated they might mount a legal challenge to add votes from rejected absentee ballots, after the Canvassing Board rejected a request to consider those ballots.

But Gelbmann wrote that none of the rejected absentee ballots should be counted for the time being.

"We simply are looking for the number of rejected absentee ballots that were legitimately rejected ... and the number of rejected absentee ballots that were mistakenly rejected," he wrote.

In St. Paul, Mansky said election officials already sorted through the ballots and found 32 ballots that appeared to have been rejected for an invalid reason.
___
Associated Press writers Brian Bakst and Martiga Lohn in St. Paul and Frederic J. Frommer in Washington contributed to this report.

Some 100 countries sign ban on cluster bombs--by Pierre-Henry Deshayes

Some 100 nations put their names Wednesday to a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs, amid calls for major arms producers such as China, Russia and the United States to join them.

Norway -- which played a key role in hammering out the worldwide ban on using, producing, transferring and stockpiling cluster munitions -- was the first of 92 countries to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) on Wednesday, with another handful expected on Thursday.

"This is a historic day when a majority of states are committing to ban cluster munitions, making a new international norm that will make a considerable difference for thousands and thousands of people all over the world," Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said after signing the treaty.

Dropped from warplanes or fired from artillery guns, cluster bombs explode in mid-air to randomly scatter hundreds of bomblets, which can be just eight centimetres (three inches) big.

Many bomblets fail to explode, littering war zones with de facto landmines that can kill and maim long after a conflict ends.

Worldwide, about 100,000 people have been killed or maimed by cluster bombs since 1965, 98 percent of them civilians, according to campaign group Handicap International.

More than a quarter of the victims are children who mistake the bomblets for toys or tin cans.
Laos, the country most affected by cluster bombs, was the second nation to sign Wednesday's treaty at Oslo city hall.

Between 1964 and 1973, the US Air Force dropped 260 million cluster bombs on Laos, or the equivalent of a fully-loaded B-52 bomber's payload dropped every eight minutes for nine years.

"The world is a safer place today," Richard Moyes of the Cluster Munitions Coalition, an umbrella group that comprises some 300 non-governmental organisations, told AFP as the signing of Wednesday's treaty began.

"This is the biggest humanitarian treaty of the last decade."

Over two days, around 100 countries -- including Britain, Canada, France and Germany -- are to sign the treaty that was finalised in Dublin in May, with the final number of signatory states only to be known at the end of the ceremony on Thursday.

"We hope to see more states signing in the coming weeks, the coming months, the coming years," Stoere said, lamenting that the world's biggest producers and users of cluster bombs have refused to sign the ban.

"Of course, (the treaty) would have been a stronger instrument if we had the US, Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan and India onboard. No doubt about it," he said.

"We have to put friendly pressure on them to sign," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters, adding "I have no doubt they will do it someday."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the United States and president-elect Barack Obama needed some prodding.

"We have to argue with the new administration that this is a good thing for everybody," he said.

But Washington reiterated its opposition Tuesday.

"Although we share the humanitarian concerns of states signing the CCM, we will not be joining them," the US State Department said in a statement.

"Such a general ban on cluster munitions will put the lives of our military men and women, and those of our coalition partners, at risk."

Despite the absence of key countries, opponents of cluster bombs say the treaty -- also known as the Oslo Convention -- should help stigmatise the use of such weapons even by non-signatory countries.

"The treaty places moral obligations on all states not to use cluster munitions," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.

In a surprise turnaround, Afghanistan said Wednesday it would sign the Oslo Convention after it had been seen as bowing to US pressure to refrain.

Activists welcomed Kabul's last-minute change of heart, noting that Afghanistan was the target of tens of thousands of cluster bombs dropped by the United States in 2001 and 2002.

Before it can go into effect, the Oslo treaty must be ratified by the parliaments of at least 30 countries, something Stoere said he hoped would happen "early next year."

Norway and a handful of other states have already launched the ratification process, organisers said, while a number of countries like Britain, France and Germany had begun destroying their stockpiles of the munitions.

The Vatican said by ratifying the treaty on the same day it was being signed, the Holy See wanted "to give a strong political signal."

Bill Clinton eyes role, too--By Mike Allen

Former President Bill Clinton says he is open to the possibility of a role in the Obama administration but said he otherwise plans to be deferential to both the president and Clinton's wife, the soon-to-be secretary of state.

Clinton could be named as a sort of super-ambassador on a specific issue like India, or on a broad topic like restoring goodwill for the United States abroad. He was deferential to President George W. Bush, accepting assignments on hurricane and tsunami relief in conjunction with the president’s father, former President George H.W. Bush.

Clinton told CNN International that he’s “just try to be a helpful sounding board” for Hillary Clinton when she becomes the nation’s chief diplomat.

“Unless he asks me to do something specific, which I'm neither looking for nor closed to,” Clinton said.

Clinton spoke in Hong Kong, where the William J. Clinton Foundation convened a Clinton Global Initiative Asia meeting with current and former heads of state from around the region.

Friends say Clinton believes that every former president has a lifetime obligation to every future president, and he will continue to be deferential.

Here are excerpts of Clinton’s comments to CNN:

Question on steps he took to satisfy the Obama transition team

BILL CLINTON: “First of all, I think that virtually everything I have agreed to do — although it’s all over and above what the law requires — is quite appropriate. For example, if she is going to be secretary of state and I operate globally and I have people who contribute to these efforts globally, I think that it’s important to make it totally transparent. Say who the donors are and let people know that there's no connection to the decisions made by America's national security team, including the secretary of state. So everything else that's part of this, I have no problem with. I think it's a good idea. I think what the Obama transition team was concerned about is not that there's something wrong with having CGI in Asia or Latin America, for that matter, but that if you have an event like this overseas and the sponsors are largely non-American, they don't even want the appearance, which I think is important, the appearance of this is important that someone is supporting this because they want to be viewed favorably by the secretary of state and the White House.

Q: How involved do you think you will get in the decisions that your wife will have to make as far as foreign policy?

BILL CLINTON: Very little. I think my involvement will be what our involvement with each other’s work has always been, which is all the years that I was governor and president, I talked to her about everything. I found her advice invaluable, and I'm sure we'll talk about all this. I mean, I really care about all these profound challenges that our country and the world are facing. But the decisions will have to be ultimately the President-elect Obama's decisions to make about what we are going to do, what our policies are going to be, and she will be part of the team formulating those policies and carrying them out. I'll just try to be a helpful sounding board to her, but I don't think I'll do any more than that. Unless he asks me to do something specific, which I'm neither looking for nor closed to.

Question on his wife finding out about being considered for secretary of state

BILL CLINTON: I must say she didn't do it with any thought of becoming secretary of state. I think she was shocked; she first read about it in the newspaper speculation. … And I think it was a very wise decision by the president-elect, and I think she made the right decision, but for her it was hard. She adored being in the senate.

Question on the U.S. economy

BILL CLINTON: I don't think we can turn it around in less than a year, because too much wealth has already disappeared. The stock market might come back in less than a year but the shrinkage. … It’s already occurred in investment wealth is going to play itself out in the real economy. I don't think it will take longer than three years. So I would say if they make really, really good decisions, which I think they will, probably somewhere between 15 months and two years we will back up again.

Darfur genocide continues: ICC prosecutor

Sudan's government is still supporting genocide in Darfur, including through rape and holding up humanitarian aid, the International Criminal Court prosecutor said Wednesday.

"Genocide continues," Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security Council, accusing Sudan of refusing to cooperate with the court.

"Rapes in and around the (refugee) camps continue. Humanitarian assistance is still hindered. More than 5,000 displaced persons die each month," he said.

Moreno-Ocampo urged the 15 Security Council member nations to be prepared for the possibility of an ICC-issued warrant for the arrest of Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir.
In July Moreno-Ocampo asked the ICC for an arrest warrant for Beshir on 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

A panel of judges is reviewing the evidence to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to try Beshir. It would be the court's first indictment of a sitting head of state.

"The judges will rule shortly on this application," Moreno-Ocampo said. "It is time to be prepared for their ruling."

Moreno-Ocampo later told reporters that it is "crucial that the Security Council is prepared to ensure the implementation" of the ICC's decision.

A decision on the warrant could be made next month, he said.

Moreno-Ocampo claims that Beshir has personally instructed his forces to wipe out three ethnic groups in the western Darfur region, where conflict has been raging since 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime.

UN officials estimate that up to 300,000 people have died in the Sudan conflict and 2.7 million have been forced to flee their homes. Khartoum claims only 10,000 have died.

Some nations friendly to Sudan, including China, believe that a warrant for Beshir's arrest would only make things worse.

The African Union (AU) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference have called for a one-year suspension of the process, citing article 16 of the ICC's founding Rome statutes.

In such a case the Security Council would need to pass a resolution postponing all ICC investigations of Beshir for 12 months.

Western nations oppose such a move, and to date no country has formally called for the council to invoke article 16.

In his statement, Moreno-Ocampo also lashed Khartoum for failing to hand over two Sudanese charged with crimes against humanity in Darfur.

In May 2007, the court issued arrest warrants for Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs Ahmed Haroun, and pro-government Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kosheib.

"Rumors of an investigation of Ali Kosheib have not materialized to this day," Moreno-Ocampo said.

Council member diplomats called on Sudan to hand over the accused, with France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert saying Sudan was under "obligation to cooperate" with the ICC.

"The dispute by the government of Sudan contesting both the authority of the Security Council and the court's competence is unacceptable," Ripert said.

Obama is delivering diversity, but some seek more--By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

Barack Obama, soon to be the first black U.S. president, is on the road to making good his pledge to have a Cabinet and White House staff that are among most diverse ever, although some supporters are asking him to go even further. He added to the minority representation at the top of his administration Wednesday when he named New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic, as Commerce Secretary.

But some Latinos are grumbling it is not enough after all the support they gave him in the campaign, and gays and Asian-Americans are pushing for some representation in remaining Cabinet announcements. But overall Obama is allaying some early concerns that a black president wouldn't need to put so much importance on diversity of those working under him.

"The question was: Because he's black, how much pressure would he feel to be more traditional with appointments?" said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic consultant who worked with the Obama campaign. "The leadership of the campaign in the beginning wasn't very diverse, so there were questions about that. But I don't hear those questions any more."

In Obama's seven Cabinet announcements so far, white men are the minority with two nominations — Timothy Geithner at Treasury and Robert Gates at Defense. Three are women — Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security, Susan Rice as United Nations ambassador and Hillary Rodham Clinton at State.

With Clinton set to replace Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright was jokingly asked at an appearance this week whether there will ever be a male secretary of state again. There probably will be "someday," she told her audience of business executives at the Fortune 500 Forum.

The United Nations ambassador is not a Cabinet position under President George Bush, but it was under former President Bill Clinton and Obama said it will be in his administration. His nominee, Susan Rice, is black, as is attorney general nominee Eric Holder.

Bush and Clinton also made a point of diversity in their Cabinets when they moved into the White House. Bush's first Cabinet had four women, two Asian-Americans, two blacks and one Hispanic. Clinton, who promised to appoint a Cabinet that "looks like America," had three women, two Hispanics and four blacks when he first took office.

Latino groups applauded the selection of Richardson, although some were disappointed that the Mexican-American governor was not chosen for secretary of state after Obama interviewed him for the job. A reporter from Spanish-language television network Telemundo asked Obama to respond to Hispanics' concerns that there aren't more Latinos advising him and that Richardson got the "consolation prize."

Obama responded that he's only appointed about half the Cabinet so far and when he's done, "I think people are going to say, this is one of the most diverse Cabinets and White House staffs of all time."

Obama transition head John Podesta has been meeting with Hispanic groups and hearing their suggestions for other Latinos who could be considered for high-level administration positions. Democratic officials say Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., is the leading contender to be U.S. trade representative.

Latinos are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 15 percent of the U.S. population, and helped Obama win in key battleground states such as New Mexico and Florida.
"I definitely don't think we should characterize it as a consolation prize, but it's not enough," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of League of United Latin American Citizens.

Wilkes said the Richardson pick gets the Obama team on its way to mollifying some of the concerns raised "and if you trust what the transition team is saying, Latino leaders should be pleased" after all nominations are made. "And we do trust them," Wilkes said.

Floyd Mori, chair of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, said with blacks and Hispanics chosen for the Cabinet, "what is missing now is an Asian-American." He said given Obama's upbringing in Hawaii and his understanding of their community, they are optimistic he will appoint at least one. He suggested Illinois veterans affairs director Tammy Duckworth, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke or Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif.

Joe Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, sent a letter to Obama this week asking him to name labor leader Mary Beth Maxwell, a lesbian, as labor secretary. Solmonese said that he did not believe there had been an openly gay Cabinet member before, but he's confident that will change with Obama.

"Not only will we expect it, but we fully believe that it will happen," he added.

An analysis by New York University's Wagner School of Public Service and The Washington Post found that of the 28 White House staffers Obama has appointed so far, 43 percent are women and 29 percent are a racial minority. The analysis examined other areas of diversity — a third have a tie to Obama's hometown of Chicago, half worked on his campaign and two-thirds have advanced degrees.

Obama also promised to have Republicans in his Cabinet, but so far only has one in Gates. He declined to promise any more when asked if that would be it.

Todd Harris, a Republican operative, gave Obama credit for how he is handling appointments.

"He really seems to be reaching out to people that he doesn't need to reach out to politically," said Harris, who worked for Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. "He is not filling his administration with a bunch of Illinois cronies and he really is getting people with a diverse set of views. As an American, that's a breath of fresh air."

___
Associated Press writers Suzanne Gamboa in Washington and Ann Sanner and Liz Sidoti in Chicago contributed to this report.

Detroit’s Urban Prosperity—A Dawn of a New Era

Detroit’s Urban Prosperity—A Dawn of a New Era

Detroit’s social infrastructure has been damaged for years and it has plagued the city’s overall infrastructure in terms of real development and economic progress. Therefore with the New Year coming upon us and a new President in the White House come January, Detroit has the opportunity to be a part of the dawn of urban prosperity and literally we can launch new era of urban development and economic progress. However it takes a real visionary to want to do the things that I am proposing that is needed for the city of Detroit to fully develop and maximize its potential like it could. With a visionary, Detroit can fully become perhaps the greatest urban prosperity venture in America’s history.

It all starts with a plan for our youth and safety. Detroit needs to launch the biggest teardown of abandoned houses initiative in the city’s history and perhaps in America’s history. Then with that initiative it needs to re-establish a fund for community groups and churches to buy houses and buildings that the city wants to take off its books for a $100 or less depending on the structural make up of the building. This fund that community groups and churches as well as other 501(c)3 programs could pay into, would go toward maintaining some of the historical properties that the city currently owns and tries to maintain.

With those two plans, Detroit needs a housing and building development commission established that attracts housing developers and investors to the city that want to establish various businesses or affordable and suitable housing on the lands where the abandoned houses and building will be torn down. Detroit will need to create more houses because we are expecting a population increase due to the fact we will launch the biggest recruitment of businesses and companies to the city that are interested in bringing “Green” jobs to the Motor City as well as technological and healthcare jobs. With those there industries being heavily pursued, we can than launch a job redevelopment and retraining program where we retrain many workers who will be laid off from the Big 3 auto industry to work other jobs and we can also train other people to get the type of jobs we are attracting.

Detroit’s urban prosperity initiative needs to also look at investigating in re-paving roads and streets with no asphalt but with cement because it lasts much longer. We can’t keep repaving the same streets in the city year after year so we need to launch a capital plan for the city so that we can pay for a lot of these initiatives. The pay to play game at city hall needs to end and those who want to pay to play should give that money to the city’s capital fund but that doesn’t mean your name or company’s name will be moved to the top of any list to get bids for jobs because everything will be based offer merit and productive. However by our cities politicians encouraging the city’s citizens, businesses and churches to fund the city’s first capital fund than it could really help in progressing the city’s urban agenda of tearing down abandoned structures, job employment & development, paving of streets, and neighborhood development.

However all of this would be for not if we don’t have enough police and firefighter on the streets to protect our citizens and to serve the needs of the people. Therefore we need to begin a massive training and recruitment undertaking that starts with the police officer and firefighter unions in the city having a better marketing campaign to recruit many of our young students from out of high school and college to join the ranks. We need to look at getting our brightest and young who probably can’t afford to go to college to join the ranks and perhaps work on their degree during the day or at night while be a police officer or firefighter. We could perhaps put quality and quantity on the city streets while at the same time, re-energizing the citizens’ faith in the city if we cut down response times by our emergency units (police, fire, and ambulance).

Until we get our man power up that doesn’t mean we ignore the job at hand which is to serve the citizens so with that in mind, our police officers need to become more neighborhood and community friendly because they will be walking the beat and getting to know the neighborhood, its residents and its business owners. They will frequently walk down streets and walk into businesses in a day to day business in order to bring some familiarity and personal style of policing the neighborhood back to our police force. The city of Detroit’s police force needs to be set up in a way that is similar to the NYPD police force that stays out and about in the Time Square area of New York. Our police force needs to be doing that not just in our downtown area but in our neighborhoods so a neighborhood community relations of at least 10 officers meaning 5 units will be assigned to walk and canvass the beat during the day light hours so that people are getting familiar with officers and vice-versa.

This is needed in order for the citizens of Detroit to want to open up to the police more in terms of reporting crime in the city. Another huge step to urban prosperity for the city of Detroit begins with the development and rebuilding of the city’s youth and recreational department. We need to launch perhaps the most expensive and massive project into youth and recreational facilities and parks that has ever been launched in any city. Our city needs to fix all our parks and bring them up to stature so that the parks in our neighborhoods are neighborhood and family friendly again. This needs to be a joint effort with community groups and churches within the city as many of them take adoption of the parks and help in the upkeep of many of these parks so that the city is not the only one responsible for the upkeep.

More recreational facilities for youth and senior citizens as well as adults need to be established in the city with the latest and most up to date equipment possible that will stimulate families to want to attend them, participate in them and volunteer in them. Our city needs to have at least 12-20 recreational facilities in the city so that ever city should be within driving range, walking range, or bus range to get to one. The upkeep of these facilities should be paid for by various fund raisers that the city’s youth and recreational department spearheads as well as perhaps a copy of dollars from the city’s capital fund. Another key component to the youth and recreational department is for the city to establish more baseball diamonds and soccer fields in parks in order to create more little leagues and soccer teams throughout the city.

The development of these structures or reestablishment of many of the baseball diamonds and soccer fields will give the city more of an advantage to attracting families within the city as well as people from across 8 mile and the city’s surrounding areas. If we build it, they will come. That’s the image and attitude that is needed when trying to create Detroit’s urban prosperity. Detroit needs to of course rebuild and work on many of its outdoor basketball facilities but at the same time, it needs to make sure our youth have in door basketball facilities to play in during the winter months as well. The fact of the matter is that Detroit’s urban prosperity initiative is one that should be centered on the youth and the word family. Everything that the city does to create urban prosperity should answer the question will families come and does this help the city’s youth.

Therefore, the city’s next step in urban prosperity has to be in creating places to shop at within the city. For the city of Detroit to be the largest city in the state of Michigan, we need to re-establish the city’s shopping facilities so that so many of the city’s dollars are not spent in other cities. The city of Detroit needs to think about building a shopping mall in perhaps the nearby Downtown area or on the Eastside of Detroit because so much land over in that area can be used to build such a structure. Secondly the shops that are placed in that mall should be shops that the surrounding malls around Detroit such as Oakland, Eastland, and Northland as well as Fairland don’t have. We need to get a Wal-Mart within that mall as well as one on the Westside of Detroit. We need to attract a movie theater perhaps one of Magic Johnson’s movie facilities to the city to be at that mall. We need to look at brining shops that are affordable to our tax base but also some upscale shops too.

If we build it, they will come because but we first have to improve the city’s public safety image. That’s where a marketing campaign to go right alone with the city’s capital fund plan goes hand and hand. We need to start showcasing the best of the city such as the waterway, our downtown area and some of our historic districts well as the city’s theater and play district which is second to New York. The city’s urban prosperity initiative needs to be one that is bold and a new undertaking that many cities in America will not be willing to undergo. The reason why Atlanta and Chicago have developed so much in the last two centuries is because they went under similar initiatives and their growth is continuing to grow. That’s why Detroit needs a visionary who is willing to spearhead these initiatives as well as well create an image of Detroit that is more like a vacation paradise.

Detroit’s urban prosperity initiative needs to involve attracting major conferences as well major events to the city as well as spearheading major events similar to those that the Chicago and Atlanta do. We need to think about establishing the city’s very own significant and signature events like Chicago has the “Taste of Chicago” and Atlanta has the “Greek Picnic”. We need our own signature events and that can only start of a brilliant marketing and strategy team who is willing to take Detroit into a new era of thinking and a new era of image makeover. Detroit’s image needs a huge makeover and its urban prosperity initiative can be the makeover that our city needs if all of these components are implemented just right.

These are just the general ideas to Detroit’s urban prosperity initiative but this could be built on and developed into Detroit’s very own strategic plan for urban prosperity. Detroit can start to see a dawn of a new era when it comes to urban prosperity and this could be that time to make Detroit strong again both economically, structurally and socially.

Inside the Transition: Economy

A behind-the-scenes look at the Obama-Biden Transition's economic team, including interviews with Paul Volcker, Austan Goolsbee, and Peter Orszag. Learn more at http://change.gov/economy

President-elect Obama and governors tackle the economy

Speaking to an assembly of nearly all of the nation's governors in Philadelphia this morning, President-elect Obama called for innovation and collaboration, and invited dissenting opinions on how best to fix the economy.

Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary

President-elect Barack Obama tapped Gov. Bill Richardson to be Commerce Secretary at a press conference in Chicago on December 3rd, 2008.

Straight Party Voting Hurts Black Republicans by Akindele Akinyemi

In the State of Michigan there is a brand new force that is preparing to lead the way in 2009. While history was being made with Sen. Barack Obama becoming the first African American President of the United States here in Michigan history was being made that never made the headlines.

Justin Amash from the City of Kentwood won his race. He will be the other Arab-American in the State House (Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Detroit, is also Arab-American). Amash represents the real conservative leadership that has left our party in a void for quite some time. Justin represents champions the traditional Republican principles of limited government, free markets, and individual liberty. Justin supports decreased taxes and fees, balanced budgets through spending cuts, educational choice, protection of property rights, and substantial structural reform of government. He believes the right to life is the foundation of a moral society.

Paul Scott is an African American Republican who was elected to the State House from District 51 in Grand Blanc. Scott is replacing term-limited David Robertson and is a fresh face to the State House. Paul believes that the best way to increase government revenues in the long term is by lowering the tax rates to mirror those of neighboring states, not raising them to force businesses and residents to move. He also believes in a limited government. Government spending in Michigan must be drastically cut in order for our state to become competitive once again in the race to attract job providers.

Larry DeShazor is someone who I have been following for a couple of years as the City Councilman of Portage, Michigan. He replaces term-limited Jack Hoogendyk who is currently running for the Chair of the Michigan Republican Party. Larry's mission in the State House will include fixing the Michigan business tax structure, improving our image so Michigan can compete in the global economy, develop sound solutions to grow and diversify our economy, attracting "knowledge-based" industries and cut fiscal and government waste.

While we gained more diversity in the State House (State Senator Bill Hardiman is an African American Republican from Kentwood and Sen. Valde Garcia is a Hispanic from Howell) we lost two figures in our community to straight party ticket.

We lost Oakland County Commissioner Mike Rogers to straight party ticket. What is interesting is that while the rest of the GOP kept their seats in the Oakland County Commission the only person who lost their seat was Rogers. Is the Oakland County GOP still stuck in time?


A BIGGER tragedy occurred when we lost Muskegon County Clerk Karen Buie to straight party ticket. We had people in Muskegon placing signs on lawns saying Buie/Obama. Many African Americans thought Buie was a Democrat when she is a Republican. And many people did not know for the past, get this, five years that Buie was a Republican who was active in Muskegon County.

Two credible, family-centered, Christian Black Republicans were lost to the sea of straight voting party tickets. Many people knew that there were a possibility that we could lose these two because they were in very tough re-election races.

Civic education is necessary to promote to our community. While we can celebrate our victories of diverse bodies into the Michigan Legislature we need to continue our trend of educating the community on the dangers of straight party voting.

This danger of voting straight ticket is based on a person rather than a philosophy. Think about it. People running for government office positions will promise anything, much like a salesman, but they are not bound by anything once the election is over. Second, why would I elect two people with differing viewpoints, put them in a room with differing viewpoints and think things will change.

This is what happened with both incumbents. A better grassroots outreach network that places an emphasis on civic education would help change this effort. Civic Education aims at imparting the knowledge and skills that we need for effective participation in the community, government, and politics.

In order for us to diversify the Republican Party we need to promote historical accuracy in terms of the relationships between Blacks and the Republican Party.

In my classes that I have taught in the past my students did not know the basic history of the Republican Party:

In 1865, Congressional Republicans unanimously backed the 13th Amendment, which made slavery unconstitutional. Among Democrats, 63 percent of senators and 78 percent of House members voted: "No."

In 1866, 94 percent of GOP senators and 96 percent of GOP House members approved the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing all Americans equal protection of the law. Every congressional Democrat voted: "No."

February 28, 1871: The GOP Congress passed the Enforcement Act, giving black voters federal protection.

February 8, 1894: Democratic President Grover Cleveland and a Democratic Congress repealed the GOP's Enforcement Act, denying black voters federal protection.

January 26, 1922: The U.S. House adopted Rep. Leonidas Dyer's (R., Mo.) bill making lynching a federal crime. Filibustering Senate Democrats killed the measure.

May 17, 1954: As chief justice, former three-term governor Earl Warren (R., Calif.) led the U.S. Supreme Court's desegregation of government schools via the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. GOP President Dwight Eisenhower's Justice Department argued for Topeka, Kansas's black school children. Democrat John W. Davis, who lost a presidential bid to incumbent Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1924, defended "separate but equal" classrooms.

September 24, 1957: Eisenhower deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to desegregate Little Rock's government schools over the strenuous resistance of Governor Orval Faubus (D., Ark.).

May 6, 1960: Eisenhower signs the GOP's 1960 Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats.

July 2, 1964: Democratic President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act after former Klansman Robert Byrd's 14-hour filibuster and the votes of 22 other Senate Democrats (including Tennessee's Al Gore, Sr.) failed to scuttle the measure. Illinois Republican Everett Dirksen rallied 26 GOP senators and 44 Democrats to invoke cloture and allow the bill's passage. According to John Fonte in the January 9, 2003, National Review, 82 percent of Republicans so voted, versus only 66 percent of Democrats.

How come our children do not know this basic form of history? When we teach our children indoctrination and not education we get the very same results we always get in our community. Straight voting for one party. In this case in Michigan: Democrats.

Remember back in 2002 when former Governor John Engler signed a bill banning straight party voting and how the Democrats fought like hell to keep it? The reason I was hearing in Detroit? "People cannot read the ballot" said one person who used to belong to the NAACP. If we have illiteracy issues that are preventing us from voting properly then maybe we should discuss strategies on how we can curb adult illiteracy in our community instead of making excuses for straight voting for one party.

The merit in removing the straight-party option if it prompts voters to be more thoughtful because they have to look at individual names on the ballot and think about the choices in front of them before they vote. If the prospect of thinking and choosing keeps some people at home on Election Day, then it seems to me the problem here is not with the ballot. It's with an electorate that doesn't take its responsibilities in a free society seriously. Many straight-ticket voters ignore important items on the ballot like nonpartisan races or those referendum and initiative questions.

Civic literacy will lead to less people voting straight ticket in the near future. We cannot allow more good, credible candidates/incumbents such as Karen Buie and Mike Rogers to get swept out of office because of some emotional flare ups. Hopefully, we can retain others in seats such as DeShazor, Scott and Amash to continue the diversity in the Michigan GOP.

(313) 516-5704 for more information.

When I am elected as the first Nigerian-American Republican in the United States I want you to remember that I have never intended to harm or hurt you. I just simply love you.

Michigan Particularly Detroit Can Be The New Mecca of Education Reform for both Public and Private Schools

The Webster Direction defines education as the act or process of educating; the result of educating, as determined by the knowledge skill, or discipline of character, acquired; also, the act or process of training by a prescribed or customary course of study or discipline. With that definition it is easy to understand why so many of our people take education for granted. It is this reason why the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit in particular has the potential to reform education like it has never been reformed before. The state of Michigan’s educational system has been broken for many years and while so many in the nation and even in the state try to highlight the woes of Detroit Public Schools, one should understand that you can judge a state’s quality of education by its largest school district. If Detroit Public Schools have been failing in the eyes of so many for years and the when the state took over DPS in 1998, the state or quality of education in the city of Detroit didn’t improve within the 7 years that the state had controlled of DPS than it is clear that both the state of Michigan and DPS need a complete makeover when it comes to education reform.

Educational reform is a word that many don’t like to hear but the reality is that is the only way that real education can be achieved so that we don’t continue to leave so many youth behind. When people hear education reform, they quickly think about “No Child Left Behind” and say that was educational reform put into place by the President of the United States of America. However what people don’t know, the structure of “No Child Left Behind” was set up for failure because you can’t teach children to pass a test plus if you don’t fund your own plan properly than its not educational reform. Therefore “No Child Left Behind” didn’t just leave the money behind but it left hundreds of thousands of children behind. “No Child Left Behind” probably left us as a nation 10 years behind in our educational system than we were when it was first implemented.

So the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit can learn from “No Child Left Behind” that real educational reform is not just about making sure students can pass a test but it starts with restricting the academic standards for students in order to make it a level playing field for both public and private school students. The state of Michigan first needs to revamp its academic standards in order to make its students more competitive globally. One might ask how will any state does that when it is financially strapped or the state of the auto industry is in limbo. Here are a couple of things the state of Michigan can do to reform its academic standards:

· Students start learning a foreign language in the 1st or 2nd grade and they continue to learn that same foreign language from elementary all the way up to high school. Therefore the feeder middle schools must have those foreign languages available as well as the feeder high schools.
· Stop teaching students to pass a state standardized test while on regular academia time but instead have students go to school on Saturdays to learn for 4 or 5 hours on how to pass a state test. Also have parents participate in this by making it mandatory for parents to attend otherwise their child will be in school on Saturdays for the regular scheduled school hours.
· Institute the same academic requirements for charter and private schools that you have for public schools. All schools should be under the same state standards meaning no one can teach our children without having a college degree in the field they are teaching and are at least working toward obtaining a state teacher certification.
· Students can’t graduate from high school without 4 years of English, mathematics, and science, and foreign language.
· Extend regular school hours by 2 hours with first hour and last hour of any student’s day being study hour.

These are just a few things that need to change academically but all of this can’t be possible without first implementing a parent responsibility law that requires parents to be involved in their child’s learning. Parents need to be required to volunteer 20-30 hours per month during regular school hours within the school and/or attend 20-30 hours of instructional time on Saturdays per month with their child. Parent instructional time on Saturdays should be spearheaded by the school principal and the school’s administration because they should provide parents with lessons and information on better parenting skills and how parents can help the teachers as well as the school in providing their child(ren) a good education both in school and at home. No matter how many academia changes we make in the state, if we don’t start holding parents accountable for their own child’s education than it is virtually impossible to ensure that all children are so what playing on an equal playing field. That’s why a parent responsibility law in regards to education needs to be implemented so that parents understand that they are more responsible for educating their child than the school, the school district and the state. Everything in regards to education starts at home and that is the type of attitude the state of Michigan needs to have.

Also the state of Michigan and school districts need to stop allowing teachers unions to detect the flow of education within our schools. Our students need help and if the teachers unions are not trying to provide the necessary solutions to the problems that are plaguing our schools than we as community leaders, parents and politicians must look at what is in the best interest of our students so that they can compete globally. Therefore teachers unions must stop talking about better pay and smaller classes and they need to start talking about having more qualified and quality teachers to teach our youth. Teachers unions need to start talking about merit pay as a means to increase a teacher’s pay rate and they need to be talking about finding a way to recruit and maintain young & talented teachers by replacing teachers who are not willing to keep up to date by the changing of times.

In order for Michigan’s educational system to be reformed, all sides must bend a little and look at the state’s educational structure not from a financial standard but from an academia standard. Our youth need us more than ever and we have to be there to make sure they are getting the best from us. If we as a state work to improve our public and private schools than we can not only reform our state’s academic standards but we can reform the mindset’s of our parents and students as well as reenergize our teachers, principals and other educational staff. This could be the dawn of a new beginning in the state of Michigan and we could be the blueprint for the rest of America to follow when it comes to education reform. We must approach educational reform in a way that we have never approached it because if we keep doing things the way we have done it than our children will continue to fail and will continue to be left behind not only nationally but internationally.

We have to set up guidelines that address failing schools and failing school districts as well but the most important parts are for the academic standards in the state to change and for parent responsibility to be higher than it has ever been. When politicians, teachers, principals, community leaders, parents and students come together with the mindset to change the state of Michigan’s educational system than we all can get a little bit of what we want in order to revamp a failing state educational structure in the wake of a failing economy. It is time to change the status quo of education within the state and begin a new dawn of real educational reform that spears educational growth across generational & economic boundaries.

This is the opportunity that our state has in order to reform public and private schools across the state. Opportunities like this only come once in a lifetime and this is perhaps the greatest opportunity the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit will ever have to impact the nation’s educational standard.

References:
The Meaning of Education
http://www.teachersmind.com/education.htm

Georgia HBCU Proposal—From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, December 01, 2008

The chairman of the state Senate Higher Education Committee told University System leaders they should consider merging two of the state’s three historical black colleges with nearby white-majority schools to save money.

With the state looking to cut spending up to 10 percent this year because of the economic slowdown, Senate Higher Education Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland) suggested historically black college Savannah State University be merged with Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, and black college Albany State be merged with Darton College in Albany.

Higher education
Harp said the separate schools were set up during a time when whites didn’t want to go to school with blacks and education was segregated in Georgia.

“The white schools were begun as segregation schools. It’s time Georgia closed that ugly chapter,” Harp said during a budget hearing on the University System’s budget Monday.

Any decision to merge the schools would have to be made by the University System’s Board of Regents. The system receives about $2.3 billion in annual state funding, but the governing body makes decisions about the system’s 35 schools.

System Chancellor Erroll Davis said merging historically black colleges is more than an economic issue because the schools have a long history of providing education to African-Americans in Georgia. The idea would probably face strong opposition from supporters of historically black colleges nationally.

“I would need some political sense (from lawmakers) that there is support for that,” Davis said.

Harp responded, “A 10 percent cut may be an incentive to do that.”

The third historically black college in the state, Fort Valley State, is probably located too far from any other University System school to be a candidate for merger

How to Re-Populate Detroit: Competing in a Global Market-- By: Akindele Akinyemi

The challenge of economic competition from China and India will require transformations in litigation, education, taxation, regulation, environmental and health policies for Michigan to continue to be the most successful economy in the world and the best source of high paying jobs and enough economic growth to sustain the Baby Boomers and their children when they retire, especially the transformation of math and science education in Michigan. This is the single greatest challenge to our continued economic and national security leadership. Without a profound improvement in math and science learning, Michigan will simply not be able to sustain its security nor compete for high value jobs in the world market.

For the last two decades, the Europeans have looked with scorn upon the American model of free enterprise. Their response to innovation and challenge has been economic isolationism, rule-¬rigging, and graceful decay. While they know that a welfare state and unionized work rules are expensive and inefficient, they’ve decided to live with them.

In Detroit, there exists a coalition of union leaders who prefer protection over competition; environmental extremists who value nature over the well-being and prosperity of their fellow citizens; and liberal intellectuals who distrust the fluidity and uncertainty of the market and prefer the orderliness of command bureaucracies. This liberal coalition complains about companies’ outsourcing jobs while insisting on corporate taxes that encourage companies to go overseas. They prefer that city government impose on business obsolete, absurd work rules, even though these raise costs, lower productivity, and make Detroit less competitive in the world market. These liberals believe in expanding regulation even when it fails to meet any cost-benefit test and clearly drives jobs out of the Detroit. The Left refuses to reform litigation or create a better system of civil justice even though it knows the explosion of lawsuits makes it less desirable to create jobs and invest in the Detroit.

The challenge to Detroit's and Michigan's economic supremacy from 1.3 billion Chinese and more than 1.1 billion Indians is vastly greater than anything we have previously seen. India’s embrace of capitalism and China’s bizarre combination of Marxist-Leninist government and free market initiatives will create a future where one-fourth of the world’s markets will be controlled by these countries. Those who advocate economic isolationism and protectionism are advocating a policy that could help China and India surpass the both Detroit and the rest of Michigan in economic power in our children’s or grandchildren’s lifetime.

AN DETROIT STRATEGY FOR COMPETING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY

Health Reform
Today, health costs are the largest sector of the economy and it will get bigger as new and expensive breakthroughs in medicine come on-line and the numbers of aging baby boomers explode. Some studies show health care growing from almost 14 percent of our economy today to 21 percent (or one out of every five dollars) in a few decades. Without dramatic change, the current system will gradually crowd out more and more spending on other items. Already governors are seeing their Medicaid and state employee health costs eat into education, highways, law enforcement, and other budget priorities. Many businesses now rank health care as their fastest-growing expense and believe that it is a serious burden in competing internationally.

If our city takes the right approach, baby boomers will live longer and better, cost their children less, and create an economic boom for Detroit.

We need to transform our health care system based on an entirely new set of principles. A new 21st Regional Health Authority will be built around three big changes:

--Move knowledge from the doctor’s office and scientific laboratory to the individual as rapidly as possible;

--Help the health care system adopt top quality information technology systems to increase productivity, accuracy, and cut costs; and

--Center the process of health on the informed individual so he or she can have the knowledge, desire, responsibility, and opportunity to live the longest life, with the best health, at the lowest cost.

--If these three big changes occur, we will live longer, healthier lives and spend less on health care than we do now.

We will also have to develop new models of compensation. A fee-for-transaction model is a bad model because it encourages the doctor to do just enough to bring you back for another transaction to earn another fee. Today we pay for visits and we get billed for visits. With new information systems, we can measure outcomes. When we pay for better outcomes, we will start getting more providers focused on wellness rather than acute care.

The wide-scale availability of information on the best practices and outcomes creates an opportunity to develop a new system of health justice. Malpractice insurance is driving doctors out of their practices. If we do not do something decisive to replace the predatory, personal injury lawyer-enrichment system with a more responsible system of health justice, we will end up as a country with richer and richer lawyers while the rest of us get poorer and poorer health care.

Tax Reform
We need to change our tax policies to make Detroit companies more competitive around the world. One example is the tax incentives for corporate headquarters location. There was a significant tax advantage for Daimler to acquire Chrysler but there was a significant disadvantage for Chrysler to acquire Daimler. By remaining blind to the consequences of our tax code, we are favoring market forces that will gradually lead to more takeovers of Detroit companies by foreign firms (e.g. Siemens taking over Westinghouse). The European Union now blocks American mergers even between American companies (e.g., Honeywell and General Electric). If we want the City of Detroit and the rest of the region to be the multinational headquarters of the world, we are going to have to rewrite our tax laws so that there are no tax disadvantages to an American firm acquiring an overseas competitor. Moreover, we might want to consider creating an incentive for American firms to make acquisitions so the both Detroit and Michigan becomes the center of executive talent in the world.

Reform of Math and Science Learning
For over a century, the pace of progress in Detroit has been driven by the discoveries of scientists and technologists, brought to the marketplace by entrepreneurs in the form of products and services. We have flourished and lead the world because we have adapted to the opportunities created by science and technology. Countries that have ignored these opportunities have fallen behind in standards of living and quality of life.

In April 1983, the Reagan administration warned America that our failure in education was becoming a major national security concern. In A Nation at Risk, we were told that America was literally at risk because of the failings of its education system. The report noted that “[o]ur once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world.” It went on to soberly conclude that “what was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur – others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments.”

Detroit's high schools are obsolete and cannot teach kids what they need to know to succeed today. For example, in math and science, our 4th graders are among the top students in the world. By 8th grade, they’re in the middle of the pack. By 12th grade, Detroit students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, Detroit is falling behind.

Winning the challenge of China and India will require profound domestic transformations, especially in math and science education, for Detroit to continue to be the most successful economy in the world and the best source of high paying jobs and enough economic growth to sustain the Baby Boomers and their children when they retire.

Improving math and science education is the single greatest challenge to our continued economic and national security leadership. Without a profound improvement in math and science learning, Detroit will simply not be able to sustain its national security nor compete for high value jobs in the world market.

This is among the most important decisions our generation will make about our country’s future and our children’s future. For the last twenty years, we have tried to improve education while accepting the fundamental principles of a failed system, guarded by the education bureaucrats and teachers unions. We must now transform math and science education or fall behind. It really is that simple.

Detroiters must began to push for more educational options if we are going to compete in a educational market in the 21st century. I applaud Mayor's Kilpatrick's decision to push for 25 new charter schools in Detroit. Our young adults who are educators should get into the business of educational management.

We should set a goal of eliminating fifty percent of the education bureaucracy outside the classroom and the laboratory and dedicate the savings to financing the improvements in math and science education.

There has been a steady growth in the amount of money spent on red tape, bureaucracy, and supervision. We now have curriculum specialists who consult with curriculum consultants, who work with curriculum supervisors, who manage curriculum department heads, who occasionally meet with teachers. The more we seem to spend on education, the smaller the share we spend on inspiring and rewarding those actually doing the educating.

Another point is for our students to be informed, enthusiastic, and confident teachers guiding them in difficult subjects. We therefore need to foster and encourage teacher specialists who have mastered a subject matter, such as engineers and mathematicians. They should be allowed to teach after taking only one course on the fundamentals of teaching. They should be allowed to teach part-time so that more professionals can have the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience in the classroom. Moreover, every state should pass a law establishing an absolute preference for part-time specialists with real knowledge over full-time teachers who do not know the subject. Finally, by the 2008 school year, no one should be allowed to teach math and science that is not competent in the subject matter.

We should apply the free enterprise system to our education system by introducing competition among schools, administrators, and teachers. Our educators should be paid based on their performance and held accountable based on clear standards with real consequences.

Graduates willing to stay in math and science fields should pay zero interest on their student loans until their incomes reach four times the national average income. This would encourage students to stay in these needed fields and continue to pursue knowledge.

We should reward the best and brightest high school graduates and fully fund their further education. Just like the Kalamazoo Promise and the Southfield Guarantee programs I highly recommended an Detroit’s Scholars Program to fully find the undergraduate and graduate education on the physical sciences, math, biosciences, or engineering of the top 1,000 high school seniors each year. These scholarships would be based on academic success and ability to maintain the highest degree of excellence throughout the remainder of their education.

We should reward and encourage private sector participation in math and science education. We should provide a tax credit to corporations that fund basic research in science and technology at our nation’s universities.

Congressman Frank Wolf was exactly right in a letter he sent to President Bush last May that cited the urgent national security need to triple the federal budget allocation for innovation – basic science research and development -- over the next decade. Detroit must act to rebuild our core strength in basic science research and development so that Detroit can maintain its global position long into the 21st Century.

Our past achievements in science, technology, and economic growth will disappear if we fail to transform our system of math and science education and make more investments in basic research. The ability to provide jobs and the Detroit way of life in the 21st century depends on our competitiveness with China and India, which in turn, depends on our success in leading the world in math and science education and continuing to be the world leader in innovation.

These ideas are designed to stimulate thinking beyond the timid “let’s do more of the same” that has greeted every call for rethinking math and science education. If the future and safety of our country really are at stake in the areas of math, science, and engineering, then we can do no less than respond with an appropriate intensity and scale.

When we provide free market solutions to the problems here in Detroit we can finally move in a 21st century environment.

The President-Elect's Message on World AIDS Day

President-elect Barack Obama took some time on World AIDS Day to remember the history of the AIDS epidemic and to thank all those who work so hard to stop this epidemic and educate the public.

President-Elect Barack Obama's National Security Team

President-Elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security team at a press conference in Chicago on December 1st, 2008.

Join the Discussion: Health Care

We invited you to join the discussion on health care, and thousands of you did. Now, the Health Policy Team's Tom Daschle and Lauren Aronson respond. For more information, visit http://change.gov/healthcare

Obama Birth Certificate Rears Its Head – Again-- By Liza Porteus Viana

The election may be over, but not the controversy.

Just when you thought the flap over the genuineness of Barack Obama's birth certificate was all said and done, in comes the We The People Foundation.

The group purchases a full-page ad in The Chicago Tribune - the newspaper of the president-elect's hometown - today and Wednesday, called "Open Letter to Mr. Obama." It's described by the foundation as a "formal Petition for a Redress (Remedy) for the alleged violation of the 'natural born citizen' clause of the Constitution of the United States of America."

Click here to view the ad.

"Mr. Obama is respectfully requested to direct the Hawaiian officials to provide access to his original birth certificate on December 5-7 by our team of forensic scientists, and to provide additional documentary evidence establishing his citizenship status prior to our Washington, D.C. press conference on December 8," the foundation says. PolitiFact has said it has no reason to doubt the authenticity of the document.Among other complaints, the foundation charges:

-that the Obama campaign posted on the Internet an "unsigned, forged and thoroughly discredited, computer-generated birth form created in 2007"

Hawaii Dept -the of Health won't confirm Obama's assertion that you were born in Hawaii (the director of Hawaii's Department of Health on Oct. 31 personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.)

-there are legal affidavits stating Obama was actually born in Kenya

-Obama's grandmother is recorded on tape saying she attended your birth in Kenya.

In 1965, Obama's mother legally relinquished whatever Kenyan or - U.S. citizenship she and her son had by marrying an Indonesian and becoming a naturalized Indonesian citizen.

We the People is in the process of choosing the forensic scientists who would travel to Hawaii to examine Obama's original birth certificate, if Obama directs Hawaiian officials to provide it. The group estimates costs will be about $20,000 to successfully complete the task, and they need money. Any donors out there?

The birth certificate issue is like this annoying itch that just won't go away. During the campaign, the Obama camp tried to stamp out the rumors by posting information - and the birth certificate - on its Fight the Smears site. But that apparently hasn't stopped the rumor mill.

A Kentucky truck driver last week filed a demand that Obama prove he is a natural-born U.S. citizen. Daniel John Essek, 47, wants the former Illinois senator to provide a copy of his birth certificate to a federal judge in London for verification.

"I may very well be chasing windmills thinking they're monsters," Essek told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

A Pennsylvania judge threw out a pre-election court challenge to the citizenship issue, saying its arguments were frivolous. Other similar lawsuits have also been filed.

Right Side News on Sunday so graciously pointed out that "Hawaii Revised Statute 338-17.8 allows registration of birth in Hawaii for a child that was born outside of Hawaii to parents who, for a year preceding the childs birth, claimed Hawaii as their place of residence. The parents would be issued a Certification of Live Birth. This is not proof of where the child was born. It only proves that the parents claimed Hawaii as their main place of residence for the prior year."

This Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court judges will conference. It's expected the question of whether Obama is actually eligible to become the next president will come up. If four of the nine justices vote to hear the case, brought by Leo C. Donofrio against the New Jersey secretary of state, oral argument may be scheduled.

You know the Internet is going to be abuzz with activity surrounding Friday's conference. We'll try to sift through the sludge and bring you the facts.

UPDATE: Here's my e-mail Q&A with Bob Schulz, chairman of the We The People Foundation:

Q.) Why don't you believe that the Hawaiian authorities have vouched for the authenticity of the birth certificate filed with that state for President-elect Obama? The state's Department of Health director on Oct. 31 released a statement verifying the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. DOH Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

A.) Yes, Hawaii officials have publicly verified that they possess Obama's original birth certificate, however in their official press release they fail to state it is an original birth certificate from Hawaii.

In fact, under Hawaiian law, a foreign born child can be registered as a naturalized (but not "natural born") U.S. citizen following application of the parents, (See, Hawaiian law provides for registration of out-of-state births under HRS 338-17.8. ). Such persons would be eligible to receive a "Certification of Live Birth" from the state, such as the document Obama has proffered. "Naturalized" citizens, such as the Governor of California, cannot hold the office of President.
This of course, does not resolve the thornier issue as to the content of Obama's birth document. Specifically the stated "place of birth" may not in fact reflect the physical location of Obama's birth (as evidenced by the "original" certificate of Live Birth claimed to be in the possession of Hawaii officials), but rather the local Hawaii residency of the U.S. parent claimed in a birth registration application such as that provided by HRS 338-17.8 (See above). In any event the document is simply a computer-created document based upon the entries in a computer database, which may have been conceivably tampered with at some point.

Hawaii law also provides for "amending" birth certificates. From the official web page: "Amended certificates of birth may be prepared and filed with the Department of Health, as provided by law, for 1) a person born in Hawaii who already has a birth certificate filed with the Department of Health or 2) a person born in a foreign country."

In short, the document proffered by Obama does not contain all the information needed to conclusively verify that he is legally eligible to hold the Office of President.

Additionally, beyond their refusal to minimally confirm that Obama was born in Hawaii, state officials also refuse to comment on the authenticity of Obama's birth document.

All these questions could be resolved by Obama by simply providing access to his original birth certificate.


Q.) What reputable sources have discredited the birth certificate already produced by Obama?

A.) Attorney Phil Berg states in his lawsuit against Obama, "...three (3) independent Document Forensic Experts performed extensive Forensic testing on the Certificate of Live Birth posted on Obama's campaign website."

He has not publicly identified his sources but one of them is reported to be a reputable professional forensics expert going under the pseudonym "Polarik" for his family's protection. His latest comprehensive report concluding Obama's document is a forgery can be found here. He has also posted a short YouTube video.


Q.) How much did you pay for these 2 full-page ads (on Dec. 1 and 3)?

A.) Tens of thousands of dollars. It was a negotiated amount.


Q.) What sort of reaction have you received so far to the ads?

A.) We have experienced significant media interest from primarily talk shows and newspapers, including some well-known media entities. We have hoped that our ads would spur public debate on this topic and hopefully, this may have begun.

In the end, there is no practical reason why Obama refuses to produce his original birth certificate. He is seeking the Office of President and has a duty to provide evidence that he meets the explicit requirements established by the Constitution.

References:
Now the Obama's Fight the Smears website provides a copy of Obama's birth certificate so compare President-Elect Barack Obama's Birth Certificate to yours and let me know what you think.
http://fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate

Obama seeks to assure nervous governors on economy-- By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

President-elect Barack Obama is pledging quick work on an economic recovery plan to include tax cuts and increased federal spending and telling the nation's governors he wants their help in designing it.

As he sat down with governors struggling with budget deficits at home, Obama said he wants to "put tax cuts into the pockets of hard-pressed middle class families." He also said Tuesday that he intends to "make a down payment on the investments we need to build a strong economy for years to come."

Vice President Joe Biden told the same group he hopes they will not criticize the incoming administration for raising the deficit as it tries to help them.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama told governors Tuesday he wants their help in designing an economic recovery plan and vowed to work with Democrats and Republicans alike.

Obama spoke to a bipartisan group of state chief executives at historic Congress Hall that included some possible opponents in four years. Among the attendees was Republicans Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Sarah Palin of Alaska, the GOP vice presidential nominee, sitting in the back row.

"To our Republican colleagues, let me just say a special word," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery. "I offer you the same hand of friendship and cooperation that I offer our Democratic governors. We have a strong and vibrant democracy. We compete vigorously during an election. But with the end of that season comes the time to govern together — and that time is now."

The meeting comes a day after the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the U.S. economy has been in a recession for the past year. Obama said he wants the governors to work with him to turn it around.

It also comes as Obama and Democrats controlling Congress are fashioning economic recovery legislation that could cost $500 billion or so. The measure is virtually certain to contain help for states struggling with slumping revenues and difficult budget cuts as the recession deepens.

"As president, I will not simply ask our nation's governors to help implement our economic recovery plan," Obama said. "I will ask you to help design that plan. Because if we're listening to our governors, we'll not only be doing what's right for our states, we'll be doing what's right for our country. That's how we'll grow our economy — from the bottom-up. And that's how we'll put America on the path to long-term prosperity."

Republican and Democratic governors sat at desks in the hall, with no separation by party, and gave Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden a standing ovation when they entered. Obama, Biden and the leaders of the National Governors Association sat facing the governors at a long table, with four American flags behind them.

Biden singled out Palin for thanks and said his former rival's presence there is a sign that both parties are now in it together. "Maybe walk outside with me later and say hello to me," he said to laughter from the crowd.

The governors want Obama to provide at least $40 billion to help pay for health care for the poor and disabled and even more for infrastructure projects like road and bridge repair.

National Governors Association Chairman Ed Rendell, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said the governors are also pressing for perhaps $136 billion in infrastructure projects like road and bridge repairs in the legislation, which Democrats hope to have ready for Obama's signature as soon as he takes office.

"We're going to be talking about what the elements of an economic stimulus plan will be," said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat.

For states, the recession has meant big reductions in tax revenues, which has forced 43 of the 50 states into budget deficits. Since virtually every state has to live under a balanced budget, governors have been forced to cut services, lay off workers and consider tax increases.

Such moves only make the economic situation more difficult, the governors say.

"Without federal help ... what we will have to do is just make continuing cuts and/or raise taxes, both of which would have a further deleterious effect on our states' economy. We simply need help," Rendell told reporters on Monday. "When the economy is bad, the social service net demands grow."

Rendell said there are upward of $136 billion in infrastructure projects that are "ready to go," chiefly road and bridge repair projects that can get started especially quickly. Water and sewer projects and school repairs are other needs.

Rendell and NGA Vice-Chairman Jim Douglas, R-Vt., met Monday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who said Democrats will work to have the economic stimulus measure ready for Obama's signature as soon as he takes office Jan. 20.

It's expected to blend funding for infrastructure projects and Medicaid aid to the states with tax cuts, a temporary increase in food stamp payments, as well as investments in renewable energy projects and other "green jobs" initiatives. The NGA has proposed $40 billion over two years to temporarily increase the federal government's contribution to the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled.

___
Associated Press reporters Andrew Taylor and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.