G.W. Bush’s résumé

It’s all recall, all the time these days in California. But let’s not allow the surreal events of the Golden State to cause us to forget the truly preposterous stuff going on at the national level. What follows is a random listing of George W. Bush’s accomplishments during his time as American president.

• Ordered an attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the majority of the world community.

• Failed to find Saddam Hussein.

• Made a number of misstatements to Congress and the American people about the reasons the United States should go to war and proclaimed falsely that there was “no doubt” about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

• Attempted to block an investigation into the most significant security failure in the history of the country.

• Failed to find Osama bin Laden.

• Created the largest government bureaucracy in the history of the world.

• Failed to find the post-9/11 anthrax killer.

• Presided over a precipitous economic decline and a lingering recession, after entering office with the strongest economy in U.S. history. Millions of Americans lost their jobs and businesses. Tens of millions have seen their pension and retirement income dwindle.

• Presided over this year’s record-breaking $455 billion federal budget deficit, $151 billion more than earlier predicted.

• Set an all-time record for U.S. presidents in biggest annual budget spending increases despite economic troubles.

• Created policies attacking key provisions of the Clean Air Act and continued to threaten the Clean Water Act by considering new rules restricting its jurisdiction.

• Left half of the country’s new toxic superfund sites unfunded for cleanup.

• Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.

• Cut health-care benefits to veterans.

• Took more vacation time off than any president in U.S. history.