BOSTON - "If you've got a beef, we've got the bun."

So might go the motto for convention week as Democrats raise the torch for America's poor, tired and ticked off masses.

Between protesters, barricades, riot police and bomb-sniffing dogs, sections of the city feel like old East Berlin - without the charm. Or Epcot on acid. Never have so many diverse peoples had such a bad trip on such a happy day.

On Sunday, a coalition of protesters was let out of its "cage" - a cyclone-fenced holding area designated for the aggrieved - and allowed to march down Portland Street toward the FleetCenter convention area.

A ragtag assortment of humanity, many sporting long, gray ponytails, they were a cornucopia of complaint, marching for everything from repeal of the Patriot Act, to Mumia's freedom, to hands off Venezuela.

At a nearby intersection, 25 or so pro-lifers threw themselves to the ground and assumed the fetal position inside body outlines chalked on the pavement, while a man with a megaphone explained that each body represented thousands of children killed by abortion. A small army of riot police stood by as reporters, photographers and videographers crowded around to capture the vignette on an otherwise sparse news day.

Meanwhile, at Copley Square, which is bordered by several hotels housing state delegations, practitioners of a meditation and exercise technique called Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong (but you knew that), were demonstrating against China's torture of Gong followers.

A parade that circled the square featured beautiful Asian women wearing traditional garb performing fan choreography and a float depicting torture victims in bloodied white pajamas. According to pamphlets handed to anyone making eye contact, China has detained or imprisoned thousands of Gong disciples, whose "crime" is aspiring to Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.

All good traits during a political rally that is posing as a positive momentum-building march toward regime change by cheerful, diversity-affirming Democrats, who are for The People, unlike those war-mongering, swaggering, elitist Republican cowboys.

It is a tall order in the midst of so much anger and protest to be Positive! But that's the order of the day. Hold the negative on Bush, affirm the positive about John Kerry and John Edwards. Howard Dean, not known for his coyness, told Florida delegates at a Monday breakfast that he was struggling:

"I know I'm not supposed to bash Bush," he told the early-morning crowd, "But it's going to be very hard."

As it must be for most Democrats, who face a double challenge this week and in the coming months of spreading the message of a candidate they're not passionate about, while building momentum on an underlying, if not overt, negative. Continued...