Remember the absurdly Orwellian Rhode Island Homeland Security proposal mentioned here a few weeks back? Looks like the Governor may be starting to get the message: Carcieri said he had not read the bill that his staff wrote before he made it public, but he received a briefing. 'This is not the kind of reaction that I anticipated or expected,' Carcieri said in a brief news conference outside his office. Carcieri's bill would have created new felony charges, closed some public records and included a definition of terrorism that critics contended was so broad it could have defined as terrorists people who were exercising their First Amendment rights of speech and assembly. Carcieri's 18-page bill also added language to World War I-era laws that make it illegal to: display foreign flags as symbolic of governments preferable to the United States; 'speak, utter, or print' statements in support of anarchy; speak in favor of overthrowing the government; or display 'any flag or emblem other than the flag of the Unites States' as symbolic of, or preferable to, the United States government. Carcieri said he will draft and introduce a new homeland-security bill in this session of the General Assembly. Not responsible for the bill he proposed because he didn't write it himself? Give me a break. And surprised by the negative reaction to reviving the Alien and Sedition Acts. The generous interpretation would be that the Governor just hasn't been paying attention. It's difficult to feel generous about this one at the moment though.