Thousands of Democratic Party delegates, elected officials and journalists have arrived here in Boston for today’s opening of the Democratic National Convention Inside the Fleet Center tonight, taking the stage will be former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, former Vice President Al Gore, and Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. On Thursday Senator John Kerry will officially accept the nomination of the party.

Outside the Fleet Center some 5,000 city, state and federal law enforcement officers have mobilized as part of a $60 million operation. Armed military police are stationed around the Convention site. Fighter planes are in the skies. The federal government has set up a massive network of surveillance cameras that are controlled at command centers in Boston and Washington. For the first time in the city’s history, police are searching subway passengers and their belongings. Over the weekend, thousands gathered at UMass Boston for the Boston Social Forum. On Sunday, in one of the first protests of the week, some 3,000 anti-war protesters marched by the Fleet Center in a rally organized by Answer.

Today, a demonstration has been called to protest the protest zone. The city designated a tiny area that has been likened to an internment camp for protesters to gather near the Fleet Center. This morning lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild and American Civil Liberties Union plan to file emergency briefs seeking a court order to move and increase the size of the free speech zone.