THE BUSH YEARS: Great for Black-Owned Businesses! “The number of black-owned businesses grew much faster than the national rate during the five years before the recession began, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The ranks of black firms shot up more than 60 percent from 2002 to 2007, compared with the overall national increase of 4 percent.”

UPDATE: Wait — before the recession? Reader Scot Echols writes: “Wait a minute, I thought we were in a recession the whole time Bush was president. Or was it a jobless recovery? I forget.”