Republican leaders in a South Carolina county have censured their own U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham for working with Democrats on a climate bill and other legislation.

The Republican has often worked with Democrats in Congress, but Charleston County Chairwoman Lin Bennett says his work on climate legislation is the last straw.

The State adds:

County chairwoman Lin Bennett said the unanimous voice vote of 50 of 104 executive members "is an effort to get his attention. They (party leaders) are just fed up, and they want him to know they're fed up.

The resolution reads, in part:

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham -- in the name of bipartisanship -- continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism.

Note well: The brand comes first, followed by freedom and the rule of law. Don't you forget it, Lindsey!

Chiang, whose monthly missives warning of impending bankruptcy have been a staple of California life for the last year, becomes positively ebullient:

October's numbers may contain some signs that California's economy is gradually beginning to heal. Both personal income and corporate taxes beat monthly estimates, while corporate and sales taxes also came in higher than October 2008.

As California goes, so goes the nation? If we're talking budget paralysis and dysfunctional politics, that might not be a good thing. But if we're talking economic recovery, a return to health out West would be a welcome prospect for the entire country.

However, after lulling our fears with his happy talk, Chiang appends a "guest article": "Overview of the Commercial Property and Capital Markets with Implications for the State of California," by Dr. Randall Zisler.

The message from Dr. Zisler is quite different. Nationally, the commercial real estate market is in big, big trouble.

A crisis of unprecedented proportions is approaching. Of the $3 trillion of outstanding mortgage debt, $1.4 trillion is scheduled to mature in four years. We estimate another $500 billion to $750 billion of unscheduled maturities (i.e., defaults). Unfortunately, traditional lenders of consequence are practically out of the market and massive amounts of maturing debt will not easily find refinancing. Marking-to-market outstanding debt will render many banks, especially regional and community banks, insolvent, especially as much of the debt is likely worth about 50 percent of par, or less.

Stated baldly: Banks are on the hook for loans to commercial real estate developers that will never be paid back and can't be refinanced. Zisler doesn't break down the figures to tell us how much of that $3 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt is California's, but one can guess that it is a significant fraction.

California's faltering steps forward, in terms of rising tax revenue for October, could just be the calm before the commercial real estate storm finally hits. Double-dip recession, with a California topping, anyone?

The economic crash and its aftermath are affecting all sectors of the economy, real estate being no exception. Real estate, especially in the transactional sub-sectors (e.g., brokers, etc.), accounts for a significant share of the California labor force. The downturn has created a vicious negative feedback, a symptom of which is still ongoing property deflation and tenant defaults. Attendant symptoms are reduced property tax revenues, failing businesses, decimated transactions volume, and reduced income and sales tax revenues. The extent to which the recovery is delayed will depend on a number of factors, not least of which is the extent and timing of loss recognition by owners and financial institutions.

Kaye Spector reports the obvious:

Soda and other sweetened beverages are the No. 1 source of added sugars in the U.S. diet, the American Heart Association says, and many health experts blame the drinks, at least in part, for the soaring U.S. obesity rate. A 12-ounce can of soda can contain up to 10 teaspoons of sugar.

From the AAFP press release:

The Consumer Alliance program is a way of working with interested companies to develop educational materials to help consumers make informed decisions so they can include the products they love in a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle," said AAFP President-elect Lori Heim, M.D., of Vass, N.C.

The American Academy of Family Physicians -- working hard to help you incorporate "the products you love but that aren't at all good for you" into your unhealthy lifestyle.

But hey, there is a silver lining. From the press release again:

The Consumer Alliance program also will create a new source of funding for AAFP, which, in recent years, has broadened its search for funding outside the pharmaceutical industry.

Fantastic! Have a Coke with your Ativan.

William D. Cohan's riveting account of the fall of Bear Stearns, "House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street" was one of the first books published on the financial crisis to hit the market. It also held pride of place as one of the best, at least until the publication of Andrew Ross Sorkin's "Too Big To Fail." Full of detail from numerous interviews and copious access to company e-mails, Cohan's account is noteworthy not least for the compelling and lengthy circumstantial case that it makes against Cioffi and Tannin. If you were judging from "House of Cards" then Cioffi and Tannin seemed obviously guilty of telling investors in their funds one thing while doing another.

Just one example of how Cohan tells the story;

The problem was that none of it was true. Cioffi had not been avoiding residential mortgage-backed securities, as he had suggested to his investors on their monthly statements. Actually, he had done precisely the opposite and had started to load up on these toxic securities at exactly the wrong moment.

The indictment of both men on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud is part of the last chapter of "House of Cards." The case against them, from Cohan's telling, seems airtight.

Two months after the publication of "House of Cards," Wall Street Journal reporter Kate Kelly's book on Bear Stearns, "Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, The Toughest Firm on Wall Street," finally made it to stores. Although Kelly broke some important stories for the Journal on Bear Stearns, "Street Fighters" -- about half as long as "House of Cards" and much less comprehensive -- suffered in comparison. The saga of Cioffi and Tannin only occupied two pages near the beginning of her story, and the fact that they had been indicted for securities fraud in federal court wasn't even mentioned, a point I noted with several exclamation points written in the margins of my reviewer's copy.

At the time, I thought this was a pretty serious flaw in "Street Fighters." But now, after seeing Cioffi and Tannin acquitted in a court of law, I wonder. Maybe it was Cohan who gave their misadventures too much attention, while Kelly got it just right.

Low-cost netbooks have been selling at a rate of 200,000 to 300,000 a month all year in China, according to China Daily, although one analyst predicted that the "euphoria" would peter out toward the end of the year, as consumers start "to realize the limits of the products."

It's a tough market to get rich in -- netbooks use cheap, underpowered processors that don't allow for much profit per device, and the competition to bring new products to market is extraordinarily intense. Yesterday's netbook is today's paperweight. So while the sheer total of computer processors being shipped may be setting records, revenue is not. Still, while we wait and watch in the U.S. for indisputable signs that an economic recovery is under way, taking meager hope in such indicators as a slight uptick in temp hiring, the reports of the fast-growing Chinese consumer computer market are intriguing. If the netbook is an entry-level computing device, then there are millions of Chinese ready for an upgrade. That's good news for the semiconductor industry, the global economy and, naturally, Intel.

What does it mean for American jobs? Well, Intel is still building state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facilities in the U.S. So as long as Chinese computers continue to incorporate Intel CPUs, there should be a trickle-down benefit to to American workers from a booming domestic Chinese computer market. But we'll see how long that lasts.