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.