We went out to throw the frisbee around for a while. This turned into standing around talking in the pleasantly cool weather, but finally we decided, seeing Carly staring at us from the window, that maybe we should go home. On the way, I realized that I couldn’t remember whether I’d left the door unlocked. We were just across the street, and I usually leave the door unlocked so I don’t have to carry keys when I’m running around. Well, those keys sure would have been handy, because I had, in fact, habitually locked the door.
I’ve done this before twice that I can think of. Once, the weather was warm enough that the windows were open, so I lifted the screen on one and crawled in. The second time, I had my phone with me (and Carly — we’d been walking), so I called the landlord and he let us in. This time, no phone, no easily accessed open windows. Our bathroom window was open a crack, though, so I climbed up to the ledge and tried to open it. The top was cracked, but it was a couple feet out of reach, and I couldn’t pry the bottom open without more leverage.
Right around this time, one of the neighbors walked by, someone we hadn’t met before. She asked what was happening and she offered her phone to call the landlord. Lisa made the call, still being on the ground and in easy reach. He was reticent, but said he’d do it. I still wanted to get in without his help because last time he said he was supposed to charge us for lockouts, and I didn’t want to do that. He called back a couple minutes later to check in, and I told him we’d figure it out, and I’d call him if we really needed help. Spoiler: he turned out to be near the Indiana border, so it was best that we figured this out ourselves. It would have been a long drive for him and a long wait for us.
Pretty soon, a couple more neighbors walked by, and they got interested. We all introduced ourselves, everyone was very friendly and offered to help. After batting around some ideas, we ended up getting a screwdriver to get some more leverage on the bottom of the window. This worked in short order, and we were greeted by an interesting sight that made me wish I had my camera: Carly was in the bathtub with her front paws propped up on the ledge, sniffing and whining and wondering What The F was going on out there. She had seen us coming home, and was probably wondering why she could hear us outside but we still hadn’t come inside while Mysterious People were rattling the front door and messing around with the bathroom window. It was adorable and hilarious. I climbed up, told her to get out of the tub (she did, picking up a toy she’d left next to it on her way), and got in.
It was quite an adventure, mercifully brief all things considered, but a fun way to meet some new people. I hope to see them again when I’m not climbing around trying not to fall into the shrubbery.
Essential viewing after any debate is the follow-up fact-checking. The AP posted theirs very shortly afterward. FactCheck.org, the best place to check up on anything, took until this morning to get theirs done, those lazy jerks.
Read both, and then read this, a general summary of the fact problems both campaigns have had.
One of the biggest ones from last night, to me, was McCain hammering on earmark spending. He said it’s gone up in the past five years, and said “you can look it up”, even referring to Citizens Against Government Waste specifically as a place where you could do so. I guess he must be counting on voters to take him at his word, because if you do look it up (here’s the 2003 report, and the 2008 report), you can see that earmarks have gone down 24 percent. So he’s flat-out lying, and it’s on an issue his supporters really like him for. He’s saying it not to make himself look good, but to smear Obama, and I would have said it was beneath him before this campaign, but running for president bringing out a facet of his character I hadn’t previously been aware of. How refreshing. Maverick indeed.
With the federal government being as big and slow as it is, and with the economy being in such rough shape, and being in such tremendous debt thanks lately to Bush (he’s been the worst, but no president has been as responsible about budgets and borrowing money as they should have been), this kind of thing is important. How are we going to pay for this $700 billion bank bailout, for example? Anyway, cutting unnecessary spending, like ethics reform, is an issue that Obama and McCain mostly agree on, and I find this kind of blatant lying to be unnecessary at best. What’s the point? Just trying to make Obama look like a Scary Big Gummint Liberal, I guess. This is worse than saying Obama has “the most liberal voting record in the Senate”, although I find that irritating as well. What does that even mean? McCain doesn’t feel obligated to tell us, letting conservative imaginations run wild.
One more quickie: in March McCain and Jim DeMint (R, SC) tried to get the Senate to impose a moratorium on earmarks. It didn’t pass, but Obama voted for it. That’s not a full record, but it should indicate something to people who think all Obama’s interested in is taking and spending your money. Don’t get all your information from McCain’s campaign (or Obama’s), that’s what I’m asking.
Based on last night’s debate taken in isolation, without the benefit of fact-checking, I have to say that the idea of McCain presiding over issues of defense and fiscal responsibility was not unpalatable. He’s comfortable talking about those issues, and does have a record of dealing with them fairly well. Unfortunately, he’s running for president, which covers quite a lot more, and it’s on other issues that I find him unacceptable. We’ll see if those issues come up in the next debates.
I think McCain should stay in the Senate where he can do more good than harm, “reaching across the aisle” to Joe Lieberman; a very short reach, indeed.
ETA: Here’s another perspective on the earmarks issue, courtesy of Foreign Policy magazine. They say earmarks are peanuts compared to the overall budget.
Anil Dash writes very well about this day.
The Big Picture is also really good today. But then, every post on that site is fantastic.
As for me, I had a wisdom tooth pulled this morning, my first time being cut with a scalpel (it was an impacted tooth). At least, I assume the oral surgeon used a scalpel; I took the advice I was given and didn’t look at the needles or any of the tools.