Oprah Keeping Harpo in Chicago with Nate Berkus Show?

The buzz on some internet blogs is that Oprah may be working to keep Harpo in Chicago, by giving her friend and consistent guest on her show, designer Nate Berkus, his own talk show. Although, it looks like she will be giving the show to NBC instead of her native ABC network.

The reason for the commotion is that Harpo Studios has posted a whole bunch of help-wanted ads online at indeed.com for...basically...all the positions needed to launch a new show: senior producer, producer, associate producer, travel booker, etc, all listed under Harpo Studios, on The Nate Berkus Show (working title). Clearly, something is brewing! Does Nate have the star power to be the next Oprah?

My HuffPo article: Jeff Haas and Bill Ayers discuss new book

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/08/jeff-haas-bill-ayers-disc_n_453332.html


"Back [in the 60's] segregation was normalized so it's easy to say 'If I would have been alive I would have been right there.' But would we have been?" Bill Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, posed the question Thursday night to a standing room only audience in the back room at Barbara's Bookstore on South Halsted.

Ayers, ironically, was himself a left wing radical and founding member of the controversial group Weather Underground during the Vietnam War. He recently returned to the spotlight as questions arose over his connection to then-presidential-hopeful Barack Obama, nearly costing Obama the election.

Ayers joined a panel of activists at different levels of career revolutionism, to discuss the legacy of Fred Hampton and to promote Jeff Haas' book "The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and Chicago Police Killed a Black Panther." The panel was hosted by Barbara's Bookstore in honor of Black History Month.

Haas' book recounts his personal story of growing up a privileged white man in Atlanta, then coming to Chicago after graduating from law school. He learned of the Black Panther movement as a young lawyer working to get Hampton released from prison. He succeeded, only to have Hampton assassinated on December 4th, 1969, in what he worked for years to prove was the work of Chicago police and the FBI, tracing all the way up to its director, J. Edgar Hoover. Haas co-founded The People's Law Office and worked to uncover the covert and often illegal government program to obtain secret evidence on activists, COINTELPRO.

Ayers was moderator of the panel that included Haas, headliner of the evening; LaDonna Redmond, Chicago community activist and co-founder of Graffiti and Grub; Dr. David Stovall, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor in Educational Policy Studies; and honorary guest Bill Hampton, Fred Hampton's brother.

In his southern drawl, Haas began the discussion by giving a substantial recap of the events leading up to the incident that shocked Americans and enraged civil rights activists over 40 years ago. He read an excerpt of the book describing his visit to a church on Chicago's West side to hear Hampton speak, quoting him:

"If you ever think about me and you ain't gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don't want myself on your mind if you're not going to work for the people. If you're asked to make a commitment at the age of twenty, and you say I don't want to make a commitment at the age of twenty, only because of the reason that I'm too young to die, I want to live a little longer, then you're dead already."

The panelists discussed the legacy of Fred Hampton, hoping to encourage people to get involved in defending civil rights.

"We are all living in a living history," Redmond said. "If we want peace, don't ask what Obama did, ask what you did."

Afterward, Haas signed copies of his book and signed mine:

"Tell truth for power. Keep the struggle for justice alive."

Blagojevich aka Nixon

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was impeached and found guilty of trying to sell the senatorial seat vacated by Barack Obama. I'm sure you've heard about it - he made SURE of it. In fact, he skipped the first day of his trial to go on a media blitz in New York, starting with the ladies on The View!! *Best Moment*: when Joy asked him to do a Nixon impression and say "I am NOT A CROOK!" and he totally refused. Smart man! That sound bite would have been played over and over and over right now. The similarities between Nixon and Blago can't be denied. The speech in this clip could almost be used word-for-word by Blago...

He made a great effort to avoid the impeachment trial, raising hell over the fact that he was not given his 6th amendment rights and he couldn't bring witnesses to testify to his innocence and it was all a conspiracy because real corrupt politicians in Illinois didn't like all the "wonderful" work he was doing for the people. Right. BUT at the end of the day, if you read the 6th amendment, it says "In all criminal cases" which means NOT in impeachment trials. His was a case of the legislature deciding whether he was still the best person to take care of Illinois, not whether he was going to jail - so the 6th amendment doesn't apply here.

He was given an undetermined amount of time to defend himself and NOT ONCE did he deny the charges of corruption or deny that he was trying to gain financially from the available senate seat. He did not provide affidavits from the supposed witnesses he wanted to call. Instead he spent almost AN HOUR talking about his immigrant parents, his children thinking he was corrupt, the great work he has done, detailing EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE (aka his JOB). I wish I knew how to play the violin so I could play along to the tune...

He will go down in history and when corrupt politicians have no defense but insist on their innocence, it will forever be known as Pulling a Blagojevich. So now Illinois is Governor-less (to my knowledge) and if his eventual appointee, Roland Burris (who I met and questioned on his policies toward Arabs, and who I consequently dislike immensely) is not honored as senator, Illinois is also Senator-less (aside from Durbin). I can't wait to be back in Chicago next week!