E-Mail This Article to a Friend Unconventional observations, part 2 BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN

THURSDAY, July 29, 2004 -- Make it stop. The sound system at the Revolutionary Women event played "Sisters are Doing it for Themselves" approximately every third song. It even annoyed the three Mass College of Art grads dressed in full green body paint as Statues of Liberty.

This week’s biggest loser. As I looked at the Revolutionary Women stage and saw the featured speakers grinning with upraised hands clasped -- Madeline Albright, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Lee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Carole Moseley Braun, and Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral -- I couldn’t help but think that Cabral challenger Stephen Murphy is gonna be seeing a lot of that image.

What do these three have in common? I found myself Wednesday afternoon on the floor of the Fleet Center chatting with Martha Coakley while watching Attorney General Thomas Reilly speak at John Kerry’s Presidential nominating convention. "It’s a real proving ground," Coakley said of the Middlesex County District Attorney position she now holds and they both did.

Welcome home Cheryl. Human Rights Campaign president Cheryl Jacques got a rousing welcome on the floor (well, rousing by off-prime speech standards), and not just from her former home state’s delegation. The Massachusetts delegates waved "HRC Vote Equality ’04 signs," while others held up their rainbow Kerry/Edwards signs. Jacques’s delicately worded approach to the verboten subject (Kerry opposes gay marriage) was "we’re working for marriage equality, so we can do what families do best -- care for each other in sickness and health." That could either mean marriage or civil unions, depending on what the listener wants to hear.

No props from Dennis. A half-dozen true believers in the Hawaii delegation -- the state that went for him in the primaries -- rose to their feet cheering and waving the only Kucinich signs in the building as the Congressman took the stage. No shout-out. Not even a point and wave. C’mon Dennis.

Irony alert. This week the state spent untold expense and energy (including several lawsuits) to protect us all for four days from peaceful protesters who had no history of violent criminal behavior. On Wednesday, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that actual criminals will be set free because the state refuses to allot sufficient funding for indigent defense.

And, the Yankees suck. By random happenstance I happened to obtain what I was assured was an extremely high-demand ticket to Wednesday night’s Gotham Magazine/DL21C/New York Democratic Party bash at Avalon. I quote from the promotional description: "Come experience a New York City-style party." Not only did it blow, with no celebrities, poor attendance, and crappy performers, but other than the two women who gave me the ticket every cool person I met there turned out to be a Bostonian.