Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, speaking at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco today, said she would urge the House of Representatives upon its return next week to authorize an investigation into “what happened on Wall Street.”

Last Saturday Robert Farley from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky hosted a Firedoglake Book Salon with Reese Erlich, who’s newest book, Dateline Havana: The Real Story of US Policy and the Future of Cuba. It was a fascinating session and I strongly urge you to read it over at the link above. Today, I want to talk with Reese not so much about the future of Cuba, but the future of the U.S., at least insofar as it is effected by our relationship with the island 90 miles off our southern coast.

The teabaggers have managed to successfully turn the original Ron Paul Tea Party ideology — which opposed the corrupting influence of lobbyists in DC — into an incoherent mess that defends a GOP that does this:

A group of several dozen of the most influential business lobbyists in Washington is vowing to raise and spend whatever it takes to bankroll Norm Coleman’s upcoming appeal fight, in the wake of a three-judge

The Administration seems to be playing with NYT reporting to send Goldman Sachs a message that its efforts to get free of government regulation may bring regulation on other benefits it has received under the bailout.

Hope they used the service elevator.

Bullshit justifications for excessive CIA secrecy. . . .

How do we know the Teabagging movement is going to flop? Because Putz wrote this: “…it’s more likely that the tea-party movement will have an impact on the 2010 and 2012 elections, and perhaps beyond.”

The pushback against the “grass roots” nature of these demonstrations has been remarkably successful. Nobody seriously thinks it’s a “grass roots” movement and its astroturf origins are clear. Which is largely due to the failure of Odom, Kern, Steinhauser and others to competently cover their tracks.

The CIA doesn’t want the Bradbury OLC memos made public. Given the details of the ICRC report, it’s clear that it’s not because its news. Rather, if the OLC memos are made public, it’ll make it clear Bradbury gave legal cover for these actions even after they had already done physical and mental damage with them.

Paul Light, a professor of Public Service at New York University, has warned that some 100,000 nonprofit organizations may be wiped out in the next few years.