Secret Service checks out cardboard Bush

ALAMEDA, Calif., March 2 (UPI) -- A California artist's cardboard cutout of President Bush with a knife through his head earned him his second visit from the U.S. Secret Service.

Michael McDonald displayed the work in his front yard in Alameda. Like some of his other art, it appears to have disturbed and annoyed some of his neighbors, including three who reported it as a potential threat against the president.

That drew Secret Service agents.

"They said, 'You've got a knife sitting in the head of the president of the United States,'" McDonald told the Oakland Tribune. "I said, 'No, I got a knife in a piece of cardboard.'"

McDonald, a Vietnam-era veteran, makes no secret of his dislike of the president and Vice President Dick Cheney, but he appreciates the Secret Service.

"They've got a very difficult job," he said. "They've got to protect an idiot. I couldn't do that."

His previous brush with Bush's protectors was triggered by an e-mail saying he would kick the president's rear-end if he ever showed up in Alameda.

Since the Secret Service visit, McDonald has modified the cutout, covering Bush's face with a swastika and a sign that says "Anonymous."