I hosted a Platform Meeting last Saturday, and the discussion focused on issues of framing.  Here's the paragraph I wrote for the event description:

 

Changing The Frames on Democratic Policy (Platform Meeting)

Too often Democratic party policy is built around conceptual structures that are inadequate, misleading or damaging. We must change the ways we describe our policies at the same time that we change our policies themselves; we must "reframe" the issues so that every American can see the power and integrity of the Democratic platform. Whether in economic policy, healthcare, the "war on drugs," the "war on terror," or any other of the dozens of crucial concerns in our country, Democrats have surrendered the framing of the issues to the Republicans and their media surrogates. Let's take back the narrative!

As part of the process, we pulled out the 2004 platform and gave it a careful reading from a framing perspective.  And what do you think we found?  The whole document is organized in ways that mimic Republican frames!  It was actually pretty scary to see.  Follow me below the flip to read some of our responses and thoughts...

I'm home alone this week and the next.  My wife and daughter are in India, and I'll join them on the first of August.  We'll see if I can live without political blogs; I don't want to spend my vacation popping into Indian cybercafes in order to get outraged.

This week, though, I'm doing something in addition to home renovations, gardening, teaching and getting a few precious quanta of outrage in between tasks.  I am holding a Platform Meeting at my home in Medford, MA; just a few miles North of Boston.  The Obama campaign's recent announcement that they would open the Democratic Platform to citizen input struck me as an enormously wise and powerful thing to do.  The moment I read about it, I thought, "here's something I'd really enjoy doing."  So I thought I'd tell anyone who's interested about the process of getting it up and running...and make an announcement here, for any interested Boston-area Kossacks.

A few more details below the flip...

After reading Keith Olbermann's piece here yesterday about John Dean and his views on the FISA legislation, I thought for a while, and I think I understand a part of Obama's strategy.

One of his strengths, we're told, is his ability to forge bipartisan agreements, crossing party lines to get things done.

Now most versions of "bipartisan" in our political universe seem to consist of Democrats cravenly giving in to Republicans, who never budge an inch.  In fact, many of us here now react reflexively to words like "bipartisan" and "compromise," because they invariably signal a sellout by our side.  But I see some real hope here; I think it's at least possible that Obama has a plan to make it inevitable that Republicans will give in to Democrats, who won't have to budge an inch.

Shall we proceed below the flip?

I just read Brad Miller's wonderful piece at TPM, "Does McCain Understand The Music?", in which he points out that our diplomacy is built around a very narrow set of interests and perceptions:

...Anne Applebaum observed that we usually place our trust in world leaders for "their excellent English or their preference for Scotch whiskey, their interest in 'doing business with us' (in the Saudi case), or in liberalizing--even democratizing--their countries (as in the case of Bhutto)," when those very "western" qualities "are precisely what some of their countrymen hate most about them."

He goes on:

We've made enormous misjudgments because we acted on our estimation of leaders, not an understanding of the societies over which they presided. Norman Mailer claimed, perhaps obnoxiously, to have asked President Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs, "Don't you understand the enormity of your mistake--you invade a country without understanding its music?"

It's true.  I want to talk about this for several different reasons.  Follow me below the flip...

Just finished reading this diary.

Realized I needed to post the story below as a response.

I'm going to bed.  Enjoy.

The most recent media assaults on Barack Obama's "patriotism" have left me amazed and infuriated, but I hope that the Obama team continues to display the same extraordinary skill in re-framing the conversation that they've shown so far.

How many people in this country, even those on our side of the discussion, have made the leap to redefine "patriotism," or, better phrased, to return the word to its true meaning?  

With that in mind, I have a few thoughts on the deeper implications of patriotism, triggered by a musical encounter with a master musician from India over two decades ago.

So I was puzzling over the Obama smear emails; the ones that claim he'll put the country under Sharia law or whatever the "fear of the day" is.  As I went to bed last night I was wrestling with the question of how to neutralize those smears.

"Debunking" won't work with any people who are too far gone in fright; they are impervious to logic or facts.  The smears need to be taken out before they reach their audience.

I woke up this morning with the germ of an idea: fight fear with fear.  These emails depend on Fear Of The Other; perhaps they can be neutralized with a dose of the same medicine.  Please follow me below the flip for my proposed solution.

If you're anything like me, your mood varies wildly depending on the happenings of the day.  Today, for example, Mukasey's HJC testimony got me pretty glum.  While republican self-destruction is schadenfreudelicious, it is also depressing; this is not what representative government should be.  Sigh.

I've already made indignant phone calls to Senators (had sarcastic fun with staffers in the offices of Schumer and Feinstein, asking if they were disappointed that Mukasey wasn't actually a reasonable guy).  I've sent dozens of faxes, albeit with small hope that I'll have any effect.  I've given money all the way into bloody April....it's wearisome, isn't it?

When I need a break, I turn to music, and I mostly turn to music from my elders.   To me, the beauty of song often emerges more powerfully once the voice has suffered the inevitable erosion of time...and with that in mind, please follow me below the fold to hear some magnificent musicians from all over the world sing their experience, their suffering, their wisdom.

The re-emergence of the "hippie" meme, thanks to this editorial, reminded me of an essay on hippiedom I wrote many years ago for a much more limited audience.  

So...I dug it out, adjusted terminology (the original was written for a highly specialized group of people and was scattered with in-jokes and musical references), brought in a bit of context, et voila!  The New Ultimate Hippy Diary, with (Slightly) Naughty Bits.

Please follow me below the flip...

Like so many here, I was dismayed by James Carville's recent comments on Howard Dean.  I decided to write him a short, sharp note telling him what I thought.  

That was early this morning.  I got a few paragraphs down, then went out with my wife and daughter to enjoy the balmy autumn weather.  We returned mid-afternoon, and I took a nap and started writing again...and the short, sharp note turned into something a bit more substantial.  

Now, I don't really think Carville's going to read my letter, but in writing it, I learned quite a bit about what I think and about why Dr. Dean's work at the DNC is as valuable as it is.  So...here goes: