FactChecking Debate Number 3
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/factchecking_debate_no_3.html


Maker of Dreamsicle Figurines Wins Tidy Verdict over KPMG
It’s not often that a Big Four accounting firm gets hit with a multi million-dollar jury verdict, as most either get dismissed or settled. But on October 10, KPMG LLP was hit with a $31.8 million verdict in a case alleging that the accounting firm negligently audited the books of a New Jersey company.
We don’t believe there is a factual basis for this verdict and [we] plan to appeal, a KPMG spokesman said. We’re confident that we’ll prevail on appeal.
The suit was brought by a California company called Cast Art Industries, which is no longer operational. It alleges that in 1998 and 1999 Papel Giftware Inc. of New Jersey and its parent company overstated their revenue and profits, in part by creating invoices for sales that never occurred and by purposely double-invoicing customers for orders that had been placed once. KPMG, which audited the company in those years, allegedly failed to disclose the inflated revenue. Cast Art Industries, which made giftware and collectibles, including the beloved Dreamsicle line of statuettes (one of which is pictured), acquired Papel in 2000 for $34 million—an amount allegedly lost when the accounting irregularity surfaced. WSJ Law Blog October 13, 2008

Monthly Budget Review: October 2008, A Congressional Budget Office Analysis, October 7, 2008
"CBO estimates that the federal budget deficit was about $438 billion in fiscal year 2008, $276 billion more than the shortfall recorded in 2007. Relative to the size of the economy, the 2008 deficit was equal to 3.1 percent of gross domestic product, compared with a deficit of 1.2 percent in 2007 and an average deficit of 2.6 percent over the 2002-2006 period. CBO’s deficit estimate is based on data from the Daily Treasury Statements and CBO’s projections; the Treasury Department will report the actual deficit for fiscal year 2008 later this month."

The Economic Bailout: An Analysis of the Economic Emergency Stabilization Act
The Economic Bailout: An Analysis of the Economic Emergency Stabilization Act, Katalina M. Bianco, J.D., John M. Pachkowski, J.D., CCH - Wolters Kluwer Law & Business
"The current credit crisis, which led to the enactment of the EESA, has its deepest roots in the subprime mortgage crisis, known in the popular media as the “mortgage meltdown,” that came into prominence in 2007. While many experts originally believed that the mortgage crisis would be contained within the mortgage industry, few at that time predicted its vast reach into the financial markets."
Related postings on financial system

Health Care Reform and the Presidential Candidates
Source: New England Journal of Medicine
The editors asked Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, and Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, to describe their plans for reforming the U.S. health care system. Their statements follow. In order to explore their positions in greater depth, the Journal and the Harvard School of Public Health cosponsored a Perspective Roundtable on September 12, 2008, entitled “Health Care in the Next Administration” and featuring senior health policy advisors David Cutler for Senator Obama and Gail Wilensky for Senator McCain. A video of the symposium can be seen at www.nejm.org.
+ Access to Quality and Affordable Health Care for Every American (John McCain)
Americans deserve leadership for real health care reform that provides access to high-quality medical care and ends spiraling costs. But the road to reform does not lead through Washington and a hugely expensive, bureaucratic, government-controlled system. We have all tangled with the existing bureaucracy enough to know that such an approach would diminish, not improve, quality. Our challenge is to protect and improve the care that doctors, nurses, and hospitals deliver, while increasing the availability and affordability of health insurance for Americans. I believe we can do this in a simple but powerful way: restoring doctors and patients to the center of health care decisions.
+ Modern Health Care for All Americans (Barack Obama)
Doctors and other health care providers work in extraordinary times and have unrivaled abilities, but increasingly our health care system gets in the way of their sound medical judgment. Increasing uncompensated care loads, administrative rules, and insurers’ coverage decisions inappropriately influence the practice of medicine. Washington sends dictates but no help. We need health care reform now. All Americans should have high-quality, affordable medical care that improves health and reduces the burdens on providers and families. Reform must emphasize prevention, not just treatment of the sick; reduce medical errors and malpractice claims; and make the practice of medicine rewarding again. I believe that by working together we can make these goals a reality.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on October 14 upheld [opinion, PDF] a district court order requiring Ohio's secretary of state to establish a system that allows county elections boards to confirm newly registered voters' eligibility. The court, sitting en banc, vacated a stay [AP report] imposed by a Sixth Circuit panel last week. The temporary restraining order issued by the district court gives Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner [official website] until Friday, October 17 to furnish county elections officials with lists of prospective voters whose information in state databases contains discrepancies, or to provide the officials with access to the statewide voter registration database so they can resolve the discrepancies. An anti-fraud provision [text] of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) [FEC materials] requires state election and motor vehicles officials to match information between their databases to ensure voter eligibility.
Last week, the New York Times reported that thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states, including Ohio, had been removed from voter rolls [JURIST] against federal voting law. The Times article found that elections officials had violated HAVA by cross-checking voter rolls with lists from the Social Security Administration before using information from other sources, as required by the statute.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/10/sixth-circuit-orders-ohio-to-take.php

univocalic (yoo-niv-uh-KAL-ik)
noun: A piece of writing that uses only one of the vowels
adjective: Using only one vowel
From Latin uni- (one) + vocalic (relating to vowels), from vox (voice).
Here's an example of univocalic that makes use of only the vowel e: Seventh September. The longest one word univocalic is strengthlessness. Also see lipogram.
A.Word.A.Day

At the age of 33, Indian author Aravind Adiga has become the third debut novelist to win one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards. Last night in London, the 40th Booker Prize was awarded to Adiga for his novel “The White Tiger.” Adiga was born in Madras and lives today in Mumbai, but he spent his high school years in Australia and studied at Columbia and Oxford universities. He is also a former correspondent for Time magazine in India. Adiga has told the press that he credits the success of “The White Tiger” in part to his years spent living in both Sydney, Australia, and New York.
Adiga has also said that in creating the protagonist of “The White Tiger” he hoped to more vividly capture “the voice of [India’s] colossal underclass” rather than to portray the country’s poor as “mirthless humorless weaklings”--the image he feels has more often prevailed in literature.
Two other first-time novelists have won the prize: DBC Pierre won in 2003 for “Vernon God Little” and Arundhati Roy in 1997 for her novel “The God of Small Things.”
Adiga is the fifth Indian author and the second-youngest writer ever to win the $86,000 prize.
http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2008/10/15/first-time-novelist-wins-the-booker-prize/

October 16 is the birthday of American playwright Eugene O'Neill, (books by this author) born in a Broadway hotel room in New York City in 1888. His plays were the first American tragedies, the first to use slang, and the first to use special effects like dramatic lighting and masks. He wrote Desire Under the Elms (1924), Long Day's Journey Into Night (1955), and many other plays.
October 16 is the birthday of Noah Webster, (books by this author) born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1758. He spent 20 years working on an American dictionary that contained more than 70,000 words, and he did all the research and writing himself.
The Writer’s Almanac