CARTERING TO KAZAKHSTAN

 has plenty of oil, mucho corruption, longtime connections to Washington deal-makers, and an ex-commie dictator with delusions of grandeur: in short, Kazakhstan has all the earmarks of a typical U.S. ally in Central Asia. Now that Uzbekistan is on the outs with an increasingly embarrassed Washington on account of the recent massacre at Andijan, and the BTC oil pipeline is chugging busily away, pumping Kazakh crude for the benefit of U.S. oil companies, it looks like the Kazakhs may soon take the place of the Uzbeks in the affections of U.S. policymakers.