Your Goddamn Tax Dollars at Work

The Secret Service meets Mark Trail. Banality ensues.

The Secret Service, which has the job of guarding the president and other dignitaries, now has a new temporary duty—protecting a mother duck and her nine eggs.

The duck, a brown mallard with white markings, has had several names suggested by Treasury Department people, including "Quacks Reform,""T-Bill," and "Duck Cheney." It has built a nest in a mulch pile right at the main entrance to the Treasury Department on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Whole thing here.

Doesn't the Secret Service have anything better to do–like protecting their own data?–with their time and our tax dollars?

Update: Reader Alan Vanneman notes: "OK, maybe you'd like to get your picture in the paper as the guy who killed a mommy duck and squashed her nine babies. This is a 'Culture of Life' Administration, dude. If you want some duck l'orange, go to fucking France."

Even More Update: In the comments below, reader Dave Straub points to a great site that provides fun meta-commentary on Mark Trail and other godawful comic strips. It's online here. These strips would no doubt make Dorothy Parker actually reach for the cocaine.