In spite of backpedaling on the choice of words over the past few months, George Bush announced this week that he does indeed want America to "stay the course." In a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a news conference at the White House on Wednesday, the president insisted that he's been right so far -- about the economy, his war on Iraq, education, his budget priorities -- and the incoming Democratic congressional majority should just follow along if they know what's good for them.

No repeal of the tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. No troop withdrawal from the muck in Iraq. No new spending on crucial domestic programs like Medicare and public education. No investments in the environment.

No more pork, he says, suggesting that the Dems cut spending on their pet projects in half. By this he means of course the federal money for pet projects like teacher training, bilingual education, toxic waste cleanup, Pell grants, and healthcare for the elderly. He wants a balanced budget in five years (long after he's out of office) but he doesn't want it to mean his friends have to pay taxes or that we should shift priorities away from his war of choice.

And as usual, by "pork" Bush doesn't mean the Iraq War contracts that keep on filling the troughs of unaccountable cronies like Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown, and Root. They just keep eating up our money like pigs and reducing it, just like real animals, to porcine end-products for our soldiers.

The troops do want some more meat - but how about some that isn't past its expiration date, unlike the rotten stuff that KBR's been caught trying to feed them. And what about drinkable water that doesn't have human waste or dirt in it? And they're still waiting for new tires and real armor for their vehicles.

It's not just Bush's war that's going disastrously. America, both the nation and the people, is dangerously in debt. The costs for Dubya's educational mega-bureaucracy created by No Child Left Behind are being passed on to local homeowners via the property tax. And Mr. Nucular himself absolutely refuses to lift a finger to reverse global warming or support safe, alternative forms of energy production to help the nation shake its deadly addiction to Middle East oil. So, there are a lot of us out here struggling to understand why we should stay the course (that is, those of us still living in what a Bush staffer once derisively called the "reality-based" world).

As the new Congress and the president begin their budget deliberations, I'm sure Bush will make sure there's money set aside for one of his pet projects: the national dose of suicidal Koolaid he wants us all to drink.