
I am phone dependent again on another perfect cool morning in the Hill Country.
Let the marathon open line begin. I travel home today so I may have a hard time checking in.
EVENING UPDATE: I'm in DFW with nothing further to say but see you tomorrow. George Will is worth a plug for slamming the GOP for timid response to Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran but they are afraid of Limbaugh, he said.
Here's your Saturday night line, with a piece of news apology:
* LIMBAUGH APOLOGIZES: Yes, the Republican message master miscalled this one. He's been forced to apologize for calling a student sincerely interested in women's access to comprehensive health care a "slut." He issued a written statement, the coward's way out, but .... Well, you decide if this deserves the word apology. It's of the if-she's-offended-I'm-sorry type.PS — Maureen Dowd has some pre-apology thoughts on the GOP "puppet master" and the craven politicians who dance to his tune.
Mitt Romney reacted to Limbaugh for days with craven silence before finally allowing on a rope line on Friday night that “it’s not the language I would have used.” Is there a right way to call a woman a slut?
* AIR SCARE FOR MCDANIEL: Attorney General Dustin McDaniel landed a private plane without incident Friday night in Jonesboro after a warning light indicated a landing gear malfunction.
Republican Party orthodoxy — rigid adherence to a narrow agenda and never admit a mistake — has never been on better display than in the reflexive defense of Rush Limbaugh by his Arkansas disciples on Twitter. All Limbaugh did was label a law student testifying for access to contraception a slut and prostitute and suggest that she and her ilk make porn movies. It was just Limbaugh channeling Jonathan Swift, alibied one of his Arkansas lapdogs from the First Church of the Secretary of State's Office.
President Obama has chosen to back the law student, Sandra Fluke. It's a winner. If Limbaugh's past is any prologue, he'll accelerate his attacks and the angry old white men that constitute the bulk of his audience will chime right in. Good. Women got the vote last century and know how to use it.
You can watch Fluke's testimony here. She's no bimbo.
Also today in the Times: Charles Blow writes that Republicans such as Rick Santorum are targeting more than the sexual revolution these days.
Santorum’s stances are not about our Constitution, but his. He views personal freedoms as a personal affront. His thinking exists in a pre-1960s era of aspirin-between-the-knees contraception and read-between-the-lines sexuality.The kind of conservatism that Santorum represents has been described as a war on women, but I would rephrase that. It’s a war on sex beyond the confines of traditional marriage and strict heterosexuality in which women, particularly poor ones, and gays, particularly open ones, are likely to suffer the greatest casualties.

Congratulations to The Holy Shakes, winners of the 20th Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase, Friday night at Revolution.
Video and more photos after the jump.
Tonight, don't miss the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase finals!
We've got Don't Stop Please, Laundry for the Apocalypse, The Holy Shakes, War Chief and Joey Farr & The Fuggins Wheat Band all facing off at Revolution.
Everything kicks off at 8:30. We'll be drawing names for three pairs of Bonnaroo passes. The first name will be drawn after Don't Stop Please, so make sure to get there on time. You can enter the drawing until 10 p.m. We'll draw the other two names after Joey Farr & The Fuggins Wheat Band's set and then we'll announce the winner of the whole enchilada.
Who will it be? Find out tonight!

Boyz II Men, Third Eye Blind, Chevell, Gov't Mule and Mute Math are all coming to Riverfest, according to the festival's Facebook page.
Previously announced: Lynyrd Skynrd, Little Big Town and Trout Fishing in America.
More to come, perhaps next week, Riverfest says.
The following transcription posted with special gratitude to my insider of insiders:
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Hispanic Candidates Running for Office in [NW] Arkansas
http://www.5newsonline.com/news/northwesta…
Smith's Alternative Arkansas History on this date:
4-Mar 1893 Greenwood Assembly, No. 239, Knights…
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