Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan, is meeting with President Bush today, and as the Los Angeles Times editorially notes, it's no joke. The huge oil—rich country (other strategic minerals abound, too — uranium, copper, tungsten, manganese, lead, iron, gold, and on and on) is an ally of the United States, and a damn important one at that. The LAT writes: It is a stable U.S. ally in a region marked by shaky friends, rivals and foes, such as Russia, China, Afghanistan and Iran. It is a majority—Muslim country that sent troops to Iraq and opened its airspace to U.S. flights during the invasion of Afghanistan. It is a model for nuclear disarmament, having agreed to destroy the missiles it inherited from the former Soviet Union. Okay, Kazakhstan is not exactly a democracy. But by the standards of the neighborhood, it is among the most democratic regimes. Welcome, President Nursultan Nazarbayev! We love you and want to remain good friends. So why, oh why do I...(Read Full Post)