Friday, February 18, 2005

Wow! Now That's Gangsta!

You've got to admire the chutzpah of our current ruling class. Early last year, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small was convicted of violating the Endangered Species Act. Part of his punishment was 100 hours of community service.

Small is still negotiating with the Federal court over exactly what he will do with those hours. According to this article, Thomas Whitney, the Federal prosecutor, has proposed that Small "...use his fund-raising prowess and managerial skills toward the preservation and protection of endangered species in organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund or the Environmental Defense Fund or perhaps help establish a foundation dedicated to a similar goal."

Small doesn't want to mess around with trivialities like this. Instead he proposes he use the 100 hours to do research into the act and to lobby Congress to change the "outmoded law" under which he was convicted.

Wow!

(Thanks to Kevin Drum)

1 comment:

irasocol said...

This is the perfect symbol of America's ruling class. I guess picking up trash along the highway is out...