Watch it Rise.

A day after Mugabe declared a rampant cholera epidemic over, the NY Times quotes a World Health Organization estimate of those in Zimbabwe afflicted with the disease at between 60 and 80,000.

For years, the ANC has sat on its hands as Mugabe runs his once exempary country into the ground. Human suffering can be measured by the number of zeros in the inflationary rate. Little have African leaders done as Mugabe rigged his election, printed money like paper, watched the salaries of doctors and teachers plummet, taken control of municipal services, and emptied hospitals of vital medicines and resources. Sewage runs in the streets. Entire families are being wiped out.

The only thing holding up Zimbabwe now is aid relief - Mugabe has no reason to lift a finger as long as international services continue to hand him money in exchange for covering his responsibilities.

As urban Zimbabweans head home for the holidays to their rural villages, the cholera epidemic is expected to spread. Watch the death toll rise, African and world leaders, and remember the international cries for intervention that came years ago and that you have ignored.

Watch it Drop.

Last night the Senate failed to pass the $14 billion bailout for the big three auto makers: Chrysler, Ford, and GM. Toothless Harry Reid threw his hands in the air without a filibuster.

What was the hamstring? An old hate in Republican hearts for unions. I don't like the idea of supporting inept and archaic corporations with taxpayer money, but there isn't much choice at the moment unless we want to throw another million jobs to the gutter.

The old work of ideological union busting has caused Senate Republicans to put the US economy in further slide. May the blame for today's market crumble rest solely on their fat, ignorant heads. Full economic collapse? Bah, they say, we can't have workers weilding more power than corporations - or voting for more democrats! My senate salary is safe!