With Kazakh's Visit, Bush Priorities Clash

[cal04]

Autocrat Leads an Oil-Rich Country
President Bush launched an initiative this month to combat international kleptocracy, the sort of high-level corruption by foreign officials that he called "a grave and corrosive abuse of power" that "threatens our national interest and violates our values." The plan, he said, would be "a critical component of our freedom agenda."

Three weeks later, the White House is making arrangements to host the leader of Kazakhstan, an autocrat who runs a nation anything but free and has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of pocketing the bulk of $78 million in bribes from an American businessman. Not only will President Nursultan Nazarbayev visit the White House, people involved say, but he also will travel to the Bush family compound in Maine.

The upcoming Nazarbayev visit, according to analysts and officials, offers a case study in the competing priorities of the Bush administration at a time when the president has vowed to fight for democracy and against corruption around the globe. Nazarbayev has banned opposition parties, intimidated the press and profited from his post, according to the U.S. government. But he also sits atop massive oil reserves that have helped open doors in Washington.

Nazarbayev is hardly the only controversial figure received at the top levels of the Bush administration. In April, the president welcomed to the Oval Office the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who has been accused of rigging elections. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea, who has been found to have millions of dollars stashed in overseas bank accounts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082801282.html

[lumpy]

1. Which US oil companies have an

interest in Kazakhstan oil production? Chevron Texico?

[K8-EEE]

2. Well The "We Won't Tolerate Dictators" Schpeil Is Quite...

SELECTIVE, isn't it? They sho nuff tolerated Saddam while they got their cut from him.

[Vidar]

5. We love dictators; it's those damed populists we hate.

[K8-EEE]

6. He Won't Tolerate Them....Except When He Tolerates Them

Which is when the oil boyz are gettin a little ack-shun from them.

[Lindacooks]

3. Bush and Cheney DEFINE 'International Kleptocracy'.

Really - look it up - their names are in the dictionary under that phrase.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. "a grave and corrosive abuse of power" - Dat's the USA in a nutshell IMO

.
.
.

The whole world knows that the USA is the most "powerful" nation in the world - but that's just because they have a humongous WarMachine -

not because they are smart

or likable . . .

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. Peas in a pod.

They'll prolly end up together in bed with Condi in the middle.

Literally.

[xchrom]

8. this is like the punch-line to a bad joke...

''Nazarbayev is hardly the only controversial figure received at the top levels of the Bush administration. In April, the president welcomed to the Oval Office the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who has been accused of rigging elections. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea, who has been found to have millions of dollars stashed in overseas bank accounts.''

the ringadingding from selection 00 and 04, the support for pakistan, etc -- this is a stand alone metophor for the whole bushco era.

[nodehopper]

9. bush's other friend boils people. what do they expect?

[Demeter]

10. Good Thing My Irony Meter Broke Last Year

It would have caught fire from this!