“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose*.” 
Just in time for the Lyndon Johnson Centenary, a new version of proof that the launch of his great crusade to bring the Great Society to Southeast Asia, the Vietnam War’s causa bella, the basis of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, never happened.
“Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964” is the National Security Agency’s once classified review of the non-events. An earlier version was released in 2005, following reports declassification had been delayed lest haunting parallels be found to Iraq intelligence troubles.
Read Time & Understand 
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off? 
Hey! It’s Lyndon Johnson’s 100th birthday!
Who can resist round, and somewhat large numbers? 
The Johnson Centennial folks hope you can’t.
To the extent there is a unified theme it appears to be a version of get ‘er done-ish hymns to his domestic labors. Recent events may have made competence in execution a hot selling point, but they are conspicuously silent on Vietnam. 
Johnson is but the beginning of what we can only hope becomes known as the Centennial Century.
First up is Lincoln, technically coming back for seconds at his bicentenary in 2009. Reagan looms in 2011, and by golly maybe they’ll get him slapped on Rushmore by then. 
The Nixon Library is already marking his 95th birthday, so look out in 2013. I’ve been unable to detect any Kennedy 2017 activity, but a boy can dream.
Is there a more stirring locator in American journalism today? The New York Times’ Patrick Healy tags along as Hillary Clinton trolls the frozen Iowa wastes – and you are there!
The dutiful Lyndon Johnson/1948 Texas Senate race analogies have been made.
Johnson’s in the news more legitimately in Supreme Court filings over Indiana’s Voter ID law. Ballot Access News reports that the Texas Attorney General gets the election year wrong in part of his filing. He also uses this fairly clear case of ballot box stuffing to justify forcing ID requirements on voters – the remote in service of the unproven.
British Conservatives Look Back in Anger 
It ain’t just disgruntled Labour supporters in Britain who dislike the current US president.
British Conservative blogger Ian Dale has polled his largely Conservative readership on ranking US Presidents since World War II. It’s not a scientific poll, but even these hardened fans of the smack of firm government view Bush the Younger as a walking disaster.
The rankings:
Franklin D Roosevelt +67
Dwight Eisenhower +59
Harry Truman +53
Ronald Reagan +50
John F Kennedy +40
Bill Clinton + 20
George Bush Snr -4
Lyndon Johnson -19
Gerald Ford -20
Jimmy Carter -40
Richard Nixon -42
George W Bush -48
Proof that Conrad Black is not a crank? 
What Would Lyndon Drive?
The National Park Service faces a dilemma.
LBJ Ranch visitors have always had to park and load unto buses, which would take them to the big house. Visitors are declining, and his ranch office opens for the birth centenary in August. The Austin American-Statesman reports that the Park Service and the Johnson family want to let visitors drive onto the ranch to boost numbers. But former Ranch staffers, led by a former NPS Chief Historian say cars will compromise the park’s historic integrity.
Where the hell did Reagan Road come from? 
