I TRIED TO WATCH Keith Olbermann's Countdown tonight. Now I understand why it has so few viewers.

HARRY REID: If I can’t block the tax bill, then I should at least get an earmark for my effort.

FROM THE EMAIL: "If we want to keep our nation's secrets 'SECRET' store them where President Obama stores his college transcripts and birth certificate." They’re classified; Cosmic Top Secret/Lamestream Media Only.

BERZERKLEY AGAIN: An Army private jailed for allegedly leaking sensitive military data is a hero and should be freed .... "If he did what he’s accused of doing, he’s a patriot and should get a medal,” said Bob Meola, the Berkeley peace and justice commissioner (!).

AL SHARPTON WANTS THE FCC to take Limbaugh off the air. Sharpton has his own radio show; take him off the air instead.

IS AMERICA ISLAMOPHOBIC? Jeff Jacoby thinks not.

AN INSTAPUNDIT FAVORITE: "They told me if I voted for John McCain ..."

SPACE-X SUCCEEDS: starts new chapter for spaceflight. The launch video is here.

More at the Space Exploration Technologies website.

DANA MILBANK: the two Paul Ryans.

In a joint appearance last week at the American Enterprise Institute with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks called him "the most intellectually formidable member of the House."

"That," Ryan said, interrupting, "ain't saying a whole lot."

Ryan was being modest.

Well, yes. At this time Congress is still overwhelmingly Democrat.

With a little less snark (to which I contributed; sorry) and this could have been a decent, albeit liberal, column.

WELL-CREDENTIALED, not well-educated.

“GORE EFFECT” strikes Cancun Climate Conference for 3 days in a row.

A BIG PLUS OF THE AIR TAXI MODEL IS AVOIDING THE TSA. "Oh, yeah. The TSA problems are almost like a government subsidy for alternative transport..."

“I’M INCANDESCENT with glee.”

NO NEW TAXES - until 2013. That should make the 2012 presidential election interesting.

IF ONLY HE COULD: Think boldly, Mr. Obama.

I SHOULD HAVE FILLED UP LAST WEEK. Gasoline is now $3/gallon in Manassas.

WIKILEAKS: Either U.S. intelligence is massively incompetent, or PFC Manning had help — an insider with high-level access.

Unfortunately the latter conclusion is realistic; in Washington DC, adherence to security policies and procedures is nonexistent.

WHAT OBAMA NEEDS TO MAKE A COMEBACK: luck - and maybe a terror attack that kills thousands of people.

Unfortunately, I’ve had much the same thought - but from a different perspective: the sheer incompetence of the Obama administration is an open invitation for terrorists to attack en masse. It may take such an attack to wake him up - or rid ourselves of him.

FREEZE TAXES, FREEZE SPENDING, AND GO HOME. No. Freeze taxes, roll back spending, then go home.

“IF THE LIBERALS HAVE BEEN BETTER AT CONTROLLING THESE COSTS, why are every single one of the big problem states liberal bastions?”

FOSSIL FUELS causes obesity (or global warming or something).

Perhaps it would be wise to inform the "global warmists" that fossil fuels also increase longevity.


Then again, perhaps not.

BRIT HUME: A teachable moment from the ‘Dismal Science.’

REMEMBER THAT TWO-YEAR FEDERAL PAY FREEZE Obama proposed last week? Well, 1.1 million federal workers are still getting $2.5 billion in pay increases.

FROM THE COMMENTS: "There is a word for reduced consumption. The word is 'poverty.' Why are so many people trying to make us poor?"

AS A LIFE MEMBER OF THE IEEE, I receive a monthly E-letter from the IEEE’s Systems, Control, and Signal Processing society. IEEE is a global electrical/computer engineering professional society, so the E-letter is a good source of tidbits on the state of engineering around the world. Here are a few.

Faculty Openings advertised in the E-letter:

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
The University of Agder
Czech Technical University in Prague
KTH, Sweden
Chalmers University of Technology
NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
Polytechnic Institute of New York University
National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
University of Alberta, Canada
Northwestern University
University of Southampton
University of Groningen
Delft University of Technology
University of Toronto
Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
University of Michigan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
University of Louisville
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
École Polytechnique de Montréal
University of Western Sydney, Australia
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Cranfield Defence and Security
University of Cambridge, UK
John Deere, Waterloo, IA

Eight of 28 are in the United States.

International conferences scheduled for 2011:

The 5th IEEE International Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems, Qingdao, China

The 19th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED'11), Corfu, Greece

3rd International Conference on Control and Optimization with Industrial
Applications– COIA 2011, Ankara, Turkey

The 7th ASME/IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics & Embedded Systems & Applications (MESA 2011), Washington, DC, USA

One of 4 is in the United States.

For at least the last 30 years I’ve been a member of IEEE, there has always been a significant global presence in IEEE newsletters - but nothing like this. A harbinger of the future of science and engineering in the U.S., perhaps?