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Morning Jolt February 10, 2014 Sometime today you'll get a survey from NRO in your e-mail box. I know, I know, these things are never fun, but this one will take probably two minutes to complete and will help the Powers That Be know our audience better, so we can inform our advertisers better. This sort of thing helps keep the lights on, and Jim paid, and so on. So thanks in advance for those two minutes of checking boxes and telling people that I'm your favorite. Communism Was the Worst Mistake in Human History. Do NBC Sports Anchors Know This? What you think depends upon what you know. You're a smart, well-read, well-educated audience. (And handsome, too!) When I say "Communism," or more specifically, the "Soviet Union," a lot probably comes to mind. You may think of the occupation of Eastern Europe. Or the massive internal forced migrations. Or the Ukranian famine, which killed 7 to 11 million people in a two-year period. Or the system of several hundred gulags and labor colonies, which imprisoned and in many cases killed 14 million people. Or the extensive, brutal, far-reaching and ruthless secret police, the KGB, the NKVD and others. Or the Katyn Massacre, killing about 22,000. The treatment of German civilians after World War Two. The deployment of nuclear missiles to Cuba, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear conflict in 1963. The KGB's active support of terror groups around the world. The unprovoked invasion of Afghanistan. Or the shooting down of KAL 007. Or their callous attempt to cover up the catastrophic disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, not mentioning anything to the public for nearly three days. I'm sure you can think of other glaring examples of the Soviet Union's epic, unparalleled, brutal reign of terror over a large chunk of the globe for decades. The point is that a LOT comes immediately to mind. Friday night's opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi offered a ludicrously rewritten version of Russian history, in which some of humanity's most bloody chapters were reimagined as Mardi Gras in Candyland. I remember Red Square being more… red. After a lot of agriculture and farming in a stage full of red representing what we usually think of as the Cold War, the program came to the late 1980s. At that moment, a little girl let go of a red balloon, symbolizing the end of the Soviet Union: "A bittersweet moment," declared NBC anchor Meredith Vieira. Can it really be that Vieira genuinely believes the end of the Soviet Union was a "bittersweet" moment? If one of Putin's goons was in the booth with her, glaring at her menacingly with his hand on the grip of his silenced pistol, I'll forgive her. Otherwise, this is may be the dumbest statement ever uttered on television, and mind you, this is the network that employs Chris Collinsworth. Was she so sucked into the imagery — a girl is losing her balloon! — that she forgot what the whole thing was supposed to symbolize? If so, mission accomplished, Vladimir Putin. The end of the Soviet Union — which Putin called "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" — has now been transmogrified into a sad passing of a simpler, happier era. A lot of folks jumped on Bob Costas for an unidentified NBC narrator referring to Communism as "one of modern history's pivotal experiments," and that deserves its own rebuke. But the problem with that is that it's a bloodless, anodyne phrase, designed to avoid offending the hosts. Vieira's comment was worse because it suggested there was something sad about the greatest retreat of oppression in modern history. The phrase 'pivotal experiments" is cowardly in its unwillingness to judge, but "bittersweet" is worse because it's the inverse, saluting the oppressor and lamenting his departure. Costas is currently suffering from pinko-eye — er, excuse me, pink eye and Vieira apparently fell in a toilet, so maybe the poor choice of words represented some sort of health-related mental lapse. I can't be surprised that the Russians are airbrushing their history with wind-tunnel force, trying to persuade themselves that the years of the A-bomb, the Korean War, Soviet troops crushing the uprising in Hungary, etc., mostly looked like Mad Men with a different color palette. That's Putin's Russia being Putin's Russia, and we're naïve if we expected otherwise. But NBC, the first "N" in your name is "National." As in "Nation." You're ours, not theirs, and that means you're free to call them as you see them. Just because they put on ludicrously inaccurate propaganda in amongst some genuinely impressive singing, dancing, and floor projections doesn't mean you have to nod in agreement to the propaganda. I Would Have Liked to Have Seen Montana . . . with a Fair Election Are you in Montana? Do you know someone in Montana? Ask them what they think of this: Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock Friday named John Walsh, a fellow Democrat, to fill the remainder of the term of Sen. Max Baucus, who was overwhelmingly confirmed Thursday as U.S. ambassador to China. Say, why did President Obama name Max Baucus, 72-year-old six-term senator from Montana, ambassador to China? Was it his expertise and deep understanding of the country? Nope. In a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, the Montana Democrat revealed as much. "I'm no real expert on China, but it's my strong belief that Chinese people are just as proud as we Americans are proud," Baucus said when answering a question about China's recently declared off-shore Air Defense Identification Zone. Come on, Obama administration. You're not supposed to appoint patently unqualified folks to key ambassadorships in order to gain partisan advantage in the midterm elections. You're supposed to appoint patently unqualified folks to key ambassadorships in order to reward campaign donors: Two Norwegian lawmakers have nominated Edward Snowden, the bête noire of U.S. intelligence, for the Nobel Peace Prize. It is quite possible that this is the Norwegians' way of showing their displeasure and shame at having the Obama administration nominate a completely unqualified person to be its ambassador to Oslo. The nominee, a Long Island campaign bundler named George Tsunis, made a fool of himself during his Senate confirmation hearings last month. He was unaware of some of the most basic facts about Norway. He admitted never having set foot in the country, and he seemed to think that Norway, a monarchy, has a president. He also had no idea which political parties constituted Norway's governing coalition, even though, as ambassador, he would be dealing with them. It seemed, as some later tweeted, that Tsunis had not even bothered to read the Wikipedia page for Norway… Even the argument that Norway is an unproblematic post for a political appointee does not pass muster. Obama's ambassador-designate to Hungary, Colleen Bradley Bell, is a television soap opera producer ("The Bold and the Beautiful") and also was a money-handler for the president's reelection campaign. What qualifications does she have to be ambassador to a country in crisis? Hungary's democratic institutions are under severe threat from the governing party, and extremists have been targeting minorities. Hungary is a member of both NATO and the European Union. Unfortunately, when asked by Sen. John McCain, Bell was incapable of identifying the U.S. strategic interests in Hungary. Baucus departs, and then the Democratic governor gets to appoint the replacement… giving the leading Democratic candidate a leg up on winning in 2014. Raw partisan politics. "Today my friend and my colleague embarks on a new mission. I introduce to you United States Sen. John Walsh," said Bullock at a news conference in the state capitol building in Helena. Baucus, a six-term Democratic senator, announced last April that he would retire at the end of 2014 rather than run for re-election. In October, Walsh announced his bid to try to keep the seat in party hands. Late last year the White House announced it would nominate Baucus as U.S. ambassador to China, spurring speculation that Bullock would name Walsh to serve as interim senator. The power of incumbency gives Walsh better name recognition and an easier ability to raise campaign cash. That will come in handy as Walsh prepares to fend off a primary challenge from former Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger. And it will also help in the general election. With Baucus gone, Republicans see Montana, a state that leans conservative, as a strong pickup possibility in November midterms. The GOP needs to win back six Democratic held seats to reclaim control of the Senate. The have a strong candidate in Rep. Steve Daines, the likely Republican nominee. If this bugs you, you can help out Steve Daines right here. Let's End the Era of Bitter, Partisan Vendettas by Beginning Another Era of Bitter, Personal Vendettas Oh, good, let's get this pair in the White House as soon as we can! A system of political rewards and punishments devised by the political power couple [Bill and Hillary Clinton] set aside "a special circle of Clinton hell . . . for people who had endorsed [President] Obama," according to "HRC," a new book by Politico former White House bureau chief Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes of The Hill. The most helpful Clintonistas were rated "1" under the Clintons' rating system, while turncoat former allies, such as John Kerry, received "7's." The Clinton camp would later "joke about the fates of the folks they felt had betrayed them," the book said. "Bill Richardson: investigated; John Edwards: disgraced by scandal; Chris Dodd: stepped down; . . . Ted Kennedy: dead," an aide quipped, according to the book. Time to update that "Arkancide" list over on FreeRepublic! ADDENDA: Kurt Schlichter: "I guess [Sandra Fluke] figured we need a voice in Sacramento speaking out against California's ultraconservative status quo." To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com
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