Stats -
Stamina for health - you've got less avoidance so you need to compensate by higher health
Agility for dodge and armor as a bear and crit and AP as a cat
Dodge - a bear only has dodge for avoidance - we don't get parry or shields, so you want to get that up as high as possible
Attack power - good for a bear but more important as a kitty - maxing your AP and Crit is vital
Armor - more armor means a lower chance to be hit and less damage taken when you're hit
Expertise - expertise is a good stat for both kitty and bear because it reduces the chance that a mob will avoid an attack - for cats this means more damage faster but for bear the advantages are several. First, since you're landing more attacks that means faster rage regen but even more important is that some mobs will get bonus or faster attacks if they dodge/parry you, which means that not having your attacks avoided reduces the total damage that you're receiving (very important against bosses considering how hard they hit
If you have leatherworking or know someone that does, score all of the high end items and that will make a fantastic starter set for dps/tanking, then hit Heroic VH for a chance at the druid staff that the last boss drops as that's also a good, solid starter item (revered with Dalaran mages also gives you access to purchasing a nice starter staff but the VH one is soooo much nicer that if you're 80, you should just save your gold and focus on that)
If you've got badges to burn then there's a beautiful DPS trinket that you can get on the cheap while if you do Wintergrasp you can also score a decent helmet and set of feet for the WG tokens (again, these are starter sets)
Here's a first rate thread with all the toys you should look for as a bear -
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=6;mid=1231455675105855919;num=8;page=1
As for spec and attack rotations, since mine tend to be unorthadox, I'll allow others to provide you with what's considered the official ones.