- I do love me some conspiracy theory action, and no conspiracy theory is juicier than a high-profile elected official claiming that a car crash that killed his wife and seriously injured him was deliberate. Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is claiming just that, only days after a truck struck the vehicle in which Tsvangirai and his wife were traveling. Supporting his claim are members of his political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, and former U.S. diplomat. They all say the crash raises suspicions of foul play. Tsvangirai finally left the hospital Saturday, a day after his wife, Susan, was killed in the collision. What plays up the possible conspiracy theory on Zimbabwean dictator Bob Mugabe trying to off Tsvangirai is the fact that Tsvangirai was taken to a hospital in Gaborone, Botswana, for medical treatment instead of a hospital in Zimbabwe. Even in his weakened state, Tsvangirai plans to return to Zimbabwe on Wednesday to attend his wife’s funeral. All conspiracy theories aside, this truly is a tragic story for a family with six children and a couple who had been married for more than 30 years. To have a life ended by a violent crash on a two-lane highway between Tsvangirai's hometown, Buhera, and the capital, Harare, is horrific. On Friday, Tsvangirai's political party said it was too early to tell if the crash was anything other than an accident, but they did an about-face just a day later and were openly declaring that they felt the crash was deliberate. Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general, theorized that if Tsvangirai had better security, the crash could have been avoided. "If there had been a police escort maybe what happened yesterday could have not have happened," Biti said. "(A) police escort would have warned oncoming vehicles of a VIP arriving. I think authorities must understand the omission. We hope that this omission will be rectified, that the prime minister must be given the protection that ought to be accorded to a prime minister." The MDC also plans to launch its own investigation, but good luck trying to uncover anything substantial with Mugabe’s iron fist of terror hovering over every inch of Zimbabwean soil. I agree with a former U.S. diplomat who called for an outside investigation, I just don’t see it happening. What’s very interesting is that this same diplomat, former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe Tom McDonald claiming that this was not the first time one of Mugabe's political foes had been killed or injured in a car crash. “I'm skeptical about any motor vehicle accident in Zimbabwe involving an opposition figure," said McDonald, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1997 to 2001. "President Mugabe has a history of strange car accidents when someone lo and behold dies -- it's sort of his M.O., of how they get rid of people they don't like." Yeah, that’s not at all surprising and extremely believable. After having more than 200 members of the opposition party disappear or be murdered during the last elections, the true surprise would be if Bob Mugabe didn’t have a hand in the crash that killed Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife. Way to go, Bob, proving even you can always find new depths to sink to……
- Because of its large cast, Heroes often suffers from the same problems that Lost has fallen victim to this season, namely finding enough screen time to keep all relevant characters involved in the show from week to week. Lost has failed at this goal as much as it has succeeded in Season 5, while Heroes has done a slightly better job. Tonight was one of Heroes’ better nights, keeping the action going on several fronts. The most interesting for me was Sylar’s sojourn to a mobile home in the middle of nowhere to confront his biological father. After visiting the diner last week where his father abandoned him and killed his mother when Sylar was only four or five years old, he left traveling pal Luke behind and went on to see dear old dad alone. Sylar’s father, played by John Glover of Smallville fame, turned out to be a terminally ill taxidermist who showed no remorse for who he was, who he had been or what he’d done to his son or his wife. Apparently suffering from either emphysema or lung cancer, he nonetheless managed to teach his son a few lessons about life and stave off Sylar’s stated intentions to kill him. Samson Gray rebuked his son for living a life without challenges, for seeking out easy prey to hunt and kill when he took powers from people. Just as it appeared Sylar was taken off his guard, Samson attacked him when Sylar turned his back. Pinning his own son to the wall with two arrows, one to each shoulder, Samson emitted some sort of whistle that rendered Sylar unconscious. When Sylar awoke, he found his father brandishing a set of taxidermy knives and looking to cut him open, take his powers and become theoretically immortal, just like his son. However, the blade intended to slice open Sylar’s head was stopped inches away as the son revealed that he had been playing possum, pretending to be weakened to sucker in his old man. Unleashing his power to heal and his telepathic abilities, Sylar freed himself, then wrapped one of the arrows around Samson’s neck. Just as it appeared he would finish off his own father and as Samson begged him to do just that, Sylar showed his true cruelty by telling him, “You’re small game,” and walking out the door, leaving his father to die a slow, agonizing death from his illness. He got the answers he had come for, which was all he wanted. Also seeking answers was Eric Doyle, a.k.a. The Puppet Man. He showed up at the Bennet house in Costa Verde at the very end of the last episode because the mysterious Rebel sent him a text saying that Claire could help him. Doyle needed help because Danko (a.k.a. the Hunter) and his agents were after him, just as they were after everyone with powers. A horrified Claire refused Doyle’s plea for help, remembering what he had done to her previously, forcing her to play a cruel game of Russian roulette at his puppet theater with her adopted and birth mothers. Doyle expresses disgust that Claire is being given a free pass from those hunting him because of who her dad is, but after momentarily toying with Claire and mom Sandra, he stops pullign their strings (literally) and says he won't force Claire to help him by using his powers because that’s not who he is anymore. Doyle leaves, but he also leaves a mark on Claire. She realizes she wants to help PWP (again, people with powers) but she also doesn’t want any more freaks (Sylar, Doyle, etc.) showing up at her door. As an alternative, she applies to work at the comic book store where another of the people she helped, Alex, worked before Claire got him out of town and away from the agents hunting him. Claire gets the job despite a lack of experience, mostly because she’s a hot girl who will draw in a lot of comic book dorks to stare at her and buy comic book from her in the process. Claire sees the job as a place where she can meet and help people Rebel sends her way, but that dream takes a sharp left turn when another text message comes in saying that agents - the ones following Claire around and watching her even as she reads the text - have located Doyle and he needs Claire’s help. She rushes to save him and after Doyle takes care of one agent with his powers, Claire takes out the second agent as he tries to ambush Doyle from behind. Later in the day, Claire hands Doyle a packet containing all the papers and documents he needs to start a new life. With Rebel’s help, he’s no longer Eric Doyle. Claire is glad to be helping someone even though she’s conflicted about who it is she’s’ helping. That help pushes her over the edge with the Hunter’s agents, who see that she’s violated the terms of her free pass - i.e. not causing trouble for their operations - and they storm the Bennet house, only to find Claire is gone, having been forewarned by a text from Rebel. The last major storyline for the night was the growing tension between the Hunter and Nathan Petrelli. After the Hunter/Danko kidnapped Matt Parkman from Building 26 last week, strapped a bomb to him and dropped him in the middle of the National Mall in Washington to “put a face on terrorism,” which is what he sees PWP as, a horrified Nathan rushes to the scene to try to help Parkman. By the time Nathan arrives, Parkman is surrounded by police and bomb squads. Nathan buys time for Parkman by stepping in, but Danko is watching via security cameras and is all set to blow the bomb up from his office in Building 26. Parkman tries to read the mind of a bomb squad member to learn how to diffuse the bomb, but he’s drugged and his powers are hindered. Just as it looks like the bomb will go off, the signal sent by Danko to trigger the explosion is disrupted momentarily, another fine effort by Rebel. In the mean time, Parkman and Nathan diffuse the bomb and Parkman is taken back into custody. Nathan confronts Danko back at Building 26, leading to both men threatening to ruin each other’s careers. Nathan plans to build a case against Danko and have the president fire him, while Danko’s plan is to expose Nathan as a PWP, an idea he got from watching video of Tracy Strauss after her capture as she pleaded with Nathan to let her go because, “You’re one of us.” Back and forth the two go, with Noah Bennet/H.R.G stepping in to assist Nathan. H.R.G calls Nathan’s mom Angela to help fend off Danko, a task Angela helps with by digging up dirt on him and having a meeting in which she stonewalls Danko’s inquiries about Nathan. That buys an opening for Nathan to talk to the president and get Danko fired, which he successfully does. Danko goes so far as to have Tracy brought back in from her off-site prison to grill her about Nathan, but Tracy holds strong and Danko is canned, to be replaced by H.R.G as leader of the team for the entire organization. Danko doesn’t take the news well and actually attacks Nathan in an elevator to expose his powers. After shooting out the glass, Danko shoves Nathan out the opening, only to see Nathan stop mid-air and fly away safely, confirming Danko’s suspicions. He turns to H.R.G. and says, “Tell me you didn’t know about this,” referring back to H.R.G.’s earlier denials of knowing anything about Nathan’s powers. Meanwhile, the flying man himself zips off to Costa Verde to help his daughter Claire, assisting her as she flees the agents who storm her house. Oh, and props to the show for one short scene of Hiro and Ando, who tend to go AWOL far too much and get far too little screen time. The final scene shows those two arriving at the address in Los Angeles that Rebel gave them to save Matt Parkman. Greeting them at the door is a young woman (played by Kaitlyn Cooper of The O.C. fame) who welcomes them in, chastises them for “taking so long” and handing them a crying baby in need of a diaper change, She informs them that this is in fact Matt Parkman, which makes no sense at all since Hiro and Ando were expecting the adult version of Parkman. Should be interesting to see what develops from this new storyline, but we’ll have to wait two weeks to find out, as Heroes is off next week, so until then………
- Props to the L.A. Galaxy for extorting extra cash out of David Beckham and AC Milan in order to allow Becks to remain with AC Milan for the remainder of its Serie A season before returning to play in the U.S. Why is it extortion? Because the Galaxy are getting money out of something and someone that 99.9997 percent of the people in this country don’t give a damn about. No one outside of the two dozen rabid soccer fans scattered around the country even realizes that Becks is gone and if he never came back, they wouldn’t have a clue. No one watches Major League Soccer because of him and quite frankly, pretty much no one watches MLS soccer at all (check the ratings if you don’t believe me). In other words, the only factor the Galaxy has working for them is that they have Becks under contract and could take legal action against him and AC Milan if he didn’t return to play in the MLS. The Galaxy surely can’t use the rabid fan interest as leverage, because that interest doesn’t exist. Bargaining from a relatively weak position, the Galaxy managed to wrangle a "multimillion dollar deal" out of Becks and AC Milan to extend his loan to the Italian team. Under the terms of the deal, Becks will get his wish to remain on loan with AC Milan before he returns to the Los Angeles Galaxy in July. He’ll stay through the end of the Italian team's season, which concludes May 31 and will also be available for England's two World Cup qualifiers in June before taking a few weeks off and rejoining the Galaxy on July 1. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but I’m guessing that the figure was closer to the $10 million the Galaxy had been seeking for an outright purchase of Becks’ contract than to the $3 million AC Milan officials had offered. That being said, don’t paint the Galaxy in too positive of a light, as just three weeks ago they and the MLS allegedly threw down the gauntlet, ending negotiations with AC Milan and demanding that Becks return to the U.S. to play right away. AC Milan officials basically blew right past that ultimatum, kept going toward the resolution they wanted and got it. They walked all over the Galaxy, which is appropriate because the MLS and American soccer are second-rate in the soccer world, where Europe and South America are the kings of the sport. As for Beckham, you know dude is a) very rich and b) very opposed to leaving Italy to play in the U.S. again if he’s digging into his own pocket to pay the Galaxy off. Being somewhere that you and your sport are actually relevant are quite the persuasive factor, no? Don’t believe Galaxy executive Bruce Arena’s claims about Becks, either. “He's pretty pleased with coming back. He wants to be in LA, he wants to take on this challenge," the coach said. "If this player had no interest in being here, we would not have done this, I can guarantee you that." Bruce, to quote Ron Burgundy: I don’t believe you. First, Beckham has no interest in returning to your team because if he did, he wouldn’t be paying to stay in Italy as long as possible. Second, you would bring him in if he had no interest in being a member of the Galaxy because you realize that he might help your irrelevant team sell a few more tickets and jerseys. Becks is buying out the final two years of his contract in November, as per the terms of the deal, and you know it. You’re looking to squeeze a little more out of him before he goes, period. He’s going to grudgingly come back and play the 13 games he’s available for our of the Galaxy’s 31-game schedule and leave for good. Dude will leave tracks on the field after his final game in a Galaxy uniform; he probably won't even bother to change or shower after the game, he’ll just jump into a waiting limo headed straight for LAX and FedEx his uniform back to you…….
- Call me skeptical (and suffering from a W. administration hangover), but as excited as I am by the prospect of 12,000 troops being pulled from Iraq over the next six months, I’m not going to believe it fully until I see it happen. The withdrawals are to be part of a gradual troop withdrawal in the region, the U.S. military said in a statement Sunday. Two brigade combat teams and their support units will redeploy without being replaced, leaving only 12 remaining combat teams in Iraq (or 12 more than there should be, if you do the math). The Brits, who have been out ahead of the U.S. in getting their men out of a place they shouldn’t have been to begin with, will also be yanking 4,000 of their troops from Iraq during the same time frame. I know we have a new Commander-in-Chief and all and I’m inclined to believe President Obama when he says he intends to follow through with the plan to withdraw most American troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010. At this point, I don’t even care why our leaders feel we can pull the troops out (they’re citing "an increased level of security and stability" that the country has achieved over the past year), they could say it’s to get them home in time to celebrate Arbor Day and I’d be good with that. What I know is that there are currently 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, 142,000 more than there should be and during his presidential campaign, Obama pledged to withdraw those troops within 16 months of taking office. That means by May of 2010 they should be gone. However, under Obama's current plan, between 35,000 and 50,000 troops will remain to help execute a drawdown plan. The overall plan is for all U.S. forces to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. That deadline is a carryover from the forgettable, regrettable W. administration, which I’ve been fighting hard to totally block out of my memory. According to our new, much smarter leader, the troops remaining in Iraq will take on an advisory role in training and equipping Iraqi forces, supporting civilian operations in Iraq, and conducting targeted counterterrorism missions. This announcement met with mixed reviews in Congress, where Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi expressed concern over the large number of soldiers Obama plans to leave in Iraq past May 2010. I’m with N. Pelosi on this one, but at this point I’ll take any troop withdrawals I can get………
- Quite the festival circuit tour Kings of Leon will be making this summer. They’re one of my favorite bands to be sure, but I don’t have much interest in paying exorbitant ticket prices at some festival where personal pan pizzas are $10 and the lines for the disgusting portable toilets are longer than the list of people who would like to punch Terrell Owens in the face. Thus, can't say as I’ll be attending either Lollapalooza or the Austin City Limits festival, both of which Kings of Leon are set to headline. Also taking the stage at which takes place in Chicago's Grant Park Aug 7-9, will be Depeche Mode, the Beastie Boys, and Jane's Addiction. In other words, jump into your musical time travel machine and venute back to 1987 - well, for all of the aforementioned artists outside of Kings of Leon. Is that seriously the best you can do when asking people to pay hundreds of dollars for tickets? Depeche Mode? The Beastie Boys? Not sure who you’re trying to appeal to other than people who have yet to join the rest of us in the 21st century, but not a great lineup. The full Lollapalooza lineup announcement is expected in April, so I guess there’s still hope for some solid additions to the lineup. Who knows, maybe it’s time to pull the plug on this festival, which began in 1991 as a traveling, multi-city festival. Kings of Leon are on quite a roll at present, having sold out New York's Madison Square Garden in January and set for a run of U.S. arena dates scheduled for April and May. And verrrry surprising that Jane’s Addiction will be playing Lollapalooza, what with the band being fronted by Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell. I really don’t care that the band has reunited with its original lineup and will play the event for the first time since its inception. Rock stars are nothing if not blatantly self-promotional, but Farrell the festival promoter needs to have a chat with Farrell the lead singer and tell him that there are better bands that could be booked. Actually, Kings of Leon and Jane's Addiction will meet earlier in the season when both bands headline the Sasquatch festival at the Gorge in Quincy, Wash. on May 23-25. Both Beastie Boys and Depeche Mode are looking to promote new albums, so of course they said yes to Lollapalooza. For my money though, you can skip this festival and attend probably a dozen concerts with lesser name bands for about the same price, coming out ahead with the latter choice………
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