As reported in yesterday's WAPO, the U.S. is down to just one WWI Veteran--Cpl. Frank Buckles of Charles Town, W.V. Mr. Buckles lied about his age to get in the army and, at age 16, served as a driver in France near the end of the war.

There's something chilling about the thought that very soon, there will be no one alive who remembers fighting in the Great War. Only three British veterans survive as actual combatants and the last of the German veterans died at the beginning of this year.

This just in on the AP wire:

In a stunning preemptive sweep today, FBI and Coast Guard agents thwarted a planned terrorist attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Norfork, Virginia. A group of five jihadists was arrested when they tried to buy chum-—a malodorous type of bait—-from an FBI agent.

Anyone up for a bit of Friday poetry parody?

Warning: If you hate meter and rhyme, this diary is a good one to skip.

It's a tad long, but it's still shorter than Poe's original (The Raven)

It’s a recurring dream—a terrible nightmare. I wake up in a cold sweat and reassure myself that the whole world does not conduct business like George W. Bush, MBA.

Is it unfair to blame the Harvard Business School? Nah, I don't think so.

Sure, daddy...the family name...they must have helped more than a little. But it still amazes me that Dubya managed to get a sheepskin from The Business School without picking up a few of the basics, namely, that no decent manager undertakes a major project without three essential elements: (1) a plan, (2) a schedule and (3) an overall budget. Was Dubya on a bender when these three things were covered in class?

In the past few days, I’ve seen several references here to Congress’s "inherent power" to hold persons in contempt of Congress directly, without referring the matter to the courts or Justice Department. Kos mentioned it the other day and Kagro X put up a tidy and accurate blurb about it. I have no idea how many Kossacks might be interested in learning more about this little-known and seldom-used power, but if this topic hasn’t already been diaried extensively, here’s a "primer" I put together after reading about a dozen court cases and a couple of law review articles on the subject.

There's been a great deal of discussion in the past week about how the new Dem-controlled Congress should go about reinstating the function of legislative oversight.

"Start by issuing subpoenas and extract the truth." No real argument from me.

But amid the clamor for apportioning blame, exacting retribution and determining a new course for the nation, it strikes me that I've read surprisingly little in the way of discussion about how the new Congress can and should use the power of the purse strings to fulfill its mandate. (Yes, mandate.)

Below the fold, I'm tossing out some ideas and soliciting your thoughts.