The recent attacks by Pakistani militants in India have exposed a startling weakness in Indian domestic security policy.  Gun laws are extremely tight for both police and civilians, and any gunman with a political agenda knows that they are unlikely to encounter any serious armed opposition from victims.  Although the hotels employ private security guards, they’re unarmed - which seems completely pointless:

The Oberoi Group employs many plainclothes security officers in its hotels, but these are unarmed, Oberoi said. Obtaining a license for even a single officer to carry a gun is extremely difficult in India, which has tight gun control laws.

Ironically, “Gun Free Zones” are too often the site of gun-related massacres.  This is the situation on college campuses and schools in the United States, and it goes back to the old Luby’s Cafeteria situation - suicidal and deranged individuals target those areas because they know they can get away with quite a lot before the police show up.  Usually they simply get tired of waiting and kill themselves, after going through the area fairly thoroughly.  Law enforcement officers, it turns out, do not live in underground burrows scattered numerously across the urban landscape.  They can’t just pop out like groundhogs whenever trouble may arise.

Conversely, attacks on areas with lots of well-armed and responsible people are very low.  Except in times of conflict, military bases are generally extremely safe, despite the massive numbers of people carrying weapons around.  Police stations don’t usually get attacked, except by T-800 units looking for Sarah Connor.  Armed robberies on gun stores in the US are exceedingly rare, and those that do occur typically end with a lopsided outcome that does not fall in the perpetrator’s favor.

Above: The Kel-Tec .380, the smallest gun of its caliber in
the world, and a popular choice for concealable self-defense.

Self-defense is a human right, and a very natural reaction to the actions of a predator.  This does not mean that armed civilians should go out hunting down an attacker in another area of a mall or school.  More often, people simply lay low in an area, and defend themselves if needed.  The arguments about interfering with police and responding officers “not being able to tell the difference” between perpetrators and civilians are illogical canards.

Until people are recognized as rational beings capable of decisionmaking and taking responsible actions to defend themselves, incidents like Mumbai, Columbine and Luby’s will probably continue.  Governments that remove that aspect of responsibility and inherent freedom are doing their citizens a disservice and placing them in danger.

Blackwell and former Senator Rick Santorum both spoke at this final event of the summit…

Of course Democrats and Obama staffers are rushing to pour water all over this. There’s no connection, no ties, nothing at all. Heck, if you listened to them you’d swear Obama had never even heard of the group. See Brad Woodhouse of the DNC on Fox News as a prime example…

SULLIVAN: Yes, but you’re hitting on the mortgage angle. What about Senator Obama’s relationship with the Woods Foundation and ACORN?

WOODHOUSE: Well, let me just say this — I mean, Senator Obama has never been an employee of ACORN, never done any training for ACORN. At one point in his career, he and a bunch of lawyers represented a bunch of groups including ACORN who had a lawsuit against Governor Edgar in Illinois and they wanted to enforce the Motor-Voter Law.

So, I mean — look, this is — there’s no relationship here.

Oh really? Is that so?

This is, of course, all very amusing. It’s getting hard to keep track of all the lowly characters whom Barack Obama claims to have “no relationship” with.

If an when this story really unfolds itself, I suspect we could see a major backlash against Obama. This kind of dirty, underhanded Chicago politics doesn’t sit well with most Americans. Now if only the McCain campaign would turn up the heat on this issue.

They’ve got a live feed going into Blogger’s Row, so I am able to actually write while watching each speaker. I’ve asked several folks in here if this is being filmed for C-SPAN or any other broadcast… but no one seems sure.

Once again, the music is top notch and gets the crowd fired up. An AFP board member is introduced with the theme to Jurassic Park. Creed’s “My Sacrifice” blares as Mayor Steve Lonegan from New Jersey makes his way to the stage. He exits to Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and then Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is used to transition into yet another very slick video.

Fred Barnes, the Executive Editor of the Weekly Standard, opens up his speech with the pronouncement that “the election is not over.” He continued to speak very highly of Sarah Palin. But, he cautioned, Americans must prepare for the worst. Liberal majorities in the House and Senate and a liberal Democratic President are a very real possibility.

Virginia’s Attorney General Bob McDonnell enters to the theme from the Rocky films. He delivered an energetic speech and then made his way into Bloggers Row to shake hands and work the room. Very nice of him to make the effort and it was clearly appreciated by the folks in here.

I’m still amazed by the soundtrack to this event. Black Eyed Peas “Let’s Get it Started” is typical, along with songs from Ac/DC, the Star Wars soundtrack, and several late 90’s pop-rock acts.

The wi-fi network in here seems to have been pushed to its breaking point once again. An entire post that I’d written was lost when I attempted to publish it just as the network crashed.

Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal was next to speak. He’s co-authored a book called “The End of Prosperity?” which he’s currently promoting. Apparently, part of that book tour took him to California to film a taping of HBO’s “Real Time” — where he was surrounded by a panel and audience of flaming liberals.

David Koch and Tim Phillips then listened at the podium as each state’s delegation chair stood to deliver a short status report of their chapter’s current activities. This reminds me a great deal of a roll call Presidential ballot from a political party convention. Once again, it makes me wonder what the eventual evolution of this group will look like. For right now, though, it seems pretty clear that most of the speakers and attendees are supporting John McCain. I’ve met a few folks who say they are voting for Barr, but usually with the added claim that they’re in a safe state or might change their mind if the election looks really close.

This is a conservative group. The mere mention of Barney Frank and Harry Reid have caused loud booing and hissing from the audience, while Nancy Pelosi’s name generated a wave of groans. The words “Barack Obama” cause laughter and eyerolling to sweep the room.

I’m pretty sure that there are no Democrats here.

A man with a pig hat on his head (the pig’s eyes blinked) just screamed that “pork is for eating, not for spending!” I guess every event like this needs a few colorful characters.

At the dinner last night we had a man who was shouting individual freedom slogans during the dinner’s speakers. I remarked to my friend seated next to me that only a Libertarian would heckle a quasi-Libertarian event.

Will used his time to speak about the current economic crisis facing America. He described the root cause as an “excess of consumption” and the “democratization of credit” in our nation. At one time, it was said that the government should model their budget the same way an average family does. That is, reducing spending to match available income.

But instead, American families have adopted the government’s model of budgeting. When expenses outpace income… seek credit.

The positives…

The venue is fantastic. Lots of space, nice ballrooms, and access to an underground tunnel that leads to an underground mall. There’s also an attached Metro Station right there. It makes it very easy to get around. Also glad I can go to the RiteAid in the mall and buy soda and snacks without having to spend $100 at the hotel gift shop or at a vending machine or something.

This crowd is largely activists and bloggers. Far less pretentious than the crowds of elected officials and bigwigs at the Republican National Convention last month. There are also not nearly as many “schmoozers” here as there were at the RNC. People are trading business cards and networking heavily, but it’s all very friendly and low key.

The negatives…

Getting reliable wifi access has been a big pain in the neck. I’ve checked out bloggers row, but it’s not overwhelming. And there’s a bit of disorganization. I missed the last bus to the Capitol Hill rally this afternoon because I, and others, were told the wrong time. Apparently the final bus left at 2pm, but some were told that the last one left at 2:30. There’s also a sign in the lobby that says “meet here for the rally at 1pm” and another sign that says busses will be running between the hotel and Capitol Hill from 1:30 and 4pm… without making it clear when the final bus left the hotel. But oh well… I’ve seen rallies before and I’ve been to the Capitol before. Some of the other bloggers I ran into were kinda pissed off though, and that’s not great.

UPDATE: I caught a late ride to the Capitol to see the tail-end of the rally. It was about what I expected, but there was a pretty impressively large crowd. I guess I didn’t expect that many folks to show uo. For some photos, check out SavetheGOP.com.

Will be very interesting to see if we get some bigger media entities to show up tonight and tomorrow, when we get the major speakers. I’m most excited to hear from David Koch, the billionaire and former Vice-Presidential candidate.

Right now I’m waiting for the SamSphere training seminar to begin in Salon J. The room is at least half empty, which makes me wonder a bit about overall attendance at the convention. Although the hotel lobby was pretty packed, there are perhaps 30 people in here… in a room that could probably support 60 easily.

I will attempt to take some video of the presenters if there is anything interesting.

It may take me a day or two to upload it though.

First, I jumped off the shuttle at the Courtyard Marriott. To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed as the hotel seemed a bit dirty and small for a conference of any size. Luckily, they told me I was at the wrong hotel. I hopped another shuttle and within minutes was at The Crystal City Gateway Marriott. (There’s another one down the street too… regular Marriott, I guess it’s called.)

First impressions - Americans for Prosperity is putting on quite a show from everything I’ve seen so far. Very impressive. The hotel is excellent, the room they’ve put me up in is very nice. I might even use the word swanky.

After unpacking and a quick shower I make my way downstairs. I’m on the 9th floor of a fairly tall hotel… goes at least to 15 or 20 stories.

I walk past a flat screen television on CNBC. Holy crap… the stock market dropped another 700 points while I was on the plane?

The blogger registration was easy and they set me up with drink tickets and a very nice padfolio. And of course, my media credentials that will allow me access into the special “bloggers row” room. There is a rumor of free snacks and beverages — but I’ll find out more about that tomorrow.

Tomorrow’s agenda starts off with some very interesting online training courses. There’s a big focus on “new media” here and I’m liking it a lot.

There is also a planned rally at Capitol Hill around 2:30pm and then a “Tribute to Ronald Reagan” dinner at 7:00pm. Of the speakers slated to address the dinner, I’m most excited to hear from George Will and David Koch. You’ll remember Koch as the Libertarian Party’s 1980 Vice-Presidential candidate. He’s also a founder of Americans for Prosperity and is the current Chairman of the AFP Foundation.

Saturday is more of the same, with some additional great speakers. John Stossell, Fred Barnes, and Grover Norquist are of particular interest. Also, I would very much like to hear what John Fund and Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal have to say about the current credit market implosion that’s going on right now.

I will attempt to score an interview or two while I’m here. And hopefully I can get some good photos as well.

Ok, enough for right now. Off to mingle and find something to eat.