Condi put on her cutest pair of shoes and headed to Jericho today and met with Mahmoud Abbas, where she informed him: “The daily difficulties, the daily humiliations that are associated with life for the Palestinian people simply must be eased. … I will work with you, Mr. President, and the Israelis to do precisely that.” After her visit there, she headed for Jerusalem to meet with Olmert, where she will ask the Israelis to do what they can to ease the restrictions imposed on Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. And of course, the Israeli government being the peace loving, cooperative, humanitarian entity that it is, will be sure to oblige.

In the meantime, al Maliki actually showed up to talk to Georgie boy, and Bush stated al Maliki is the “right guy for Iraq.” Uh huh….until the coup. He also stated (get this): “I know there’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq.” Excuse me? Graceful??? Ahhhhh I don’t think anyone in the world thinks our exit will be graceful…….shameful maybe, since you’ve gone in and created total and utter chaos in Iraq, destroyed the country and caused total unrest in the whole area. But graceful? Somebody shut this guy up. Lock him up in the White House for the next two years. Or send him to the ranch to talk to the horses…..or how about we claim he was drunk and coked up when he made the world’s worst decision ever to invade Iraq….and we’re sorry…..and stick him in rehab for the next two years. While the two say everything is peachy keen between them, the article states:
Still, tensions seemed to bubble just under the surface. The two leaders barely looked at each other during the news conference. And when Bush, at one point, asked the prime minister if he wanted to continue taking questions from reporters, the prime minister swiveled his head toward Bush and shot him an incredulous look.
“We said six questions, now this is the seventh - this is the eighth - eight questions,” Maliki said. Oh to be a fly on the wall…….

In summing up the events of the week, the conference host, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, takes the prize for the most sensible and honest statement of the week, when he said Sunday the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root of other troubles in the Middle East, including the war in Iraq and crisis in Lebanon. Give the man the prize!!!!!!!