Do you like flying flags other than the American flag? Are you interested in anarchism as a political movement? For a few days, it looked like Rhode Island was not the place you should go.
David Grenier, the Kucinich campaign coordinator for Rhode Island, raised the alert. Rhode Island's Republican governor, Donald Carcieri, proposed a homeland security bill that, among other things, would have made it illegal to fly flags other than the American flag or to teach or advocate anarchism or to associate with an organization that does. David has more here. See also this news report.
The ACLU went ballistic, describing the bill as "one of the most extreme attacks on freedom of speech that the ACLU has seen in recent history". The ACLU also notes a curious provision:
The report is also severely critical of another provision in the bill that adds broad new exemptions to the open records law that, according to the ACLU, would keep the public uninformed on important safety matters. The exemptions include – incredibly enough as the state commemorates the anniversary of The Station tragedy – business fire safety records.While Googling for information on this, I had to scroll past dozens and dozens of news reports about the anniversary of the Rhode Island nightclub fire, many of which lauded Carcieri for introducing tough new fire safety regulations. And at the same time, he plans to make it impossible for citizens to find out if businesses are actually abiding by these rules. Say what? Why the hell are we classifying this type of information anyway? It turns out that the provisions of the bill relating to anarchy are already law in Rhode Island. In fact, these laws were passed after World War One, a time notable for restrictions on free speech. Many of the laws of that period were subsequently repealed; apparently Rhode Island kept theirs but never enforced it. Fortunately, Carcieri withdrew his bill after the firestorm of criticism. However, as David notes in a follow-up, Carcieri merely plans to retool the bill and then present it again.