Adios 2005

1) "This amendment is blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry. When people of my color used to marry someone of Mr. Chisum's color, you'd often find people of my color hanging from a tree. That's what white people back then did to protect marriage." – State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, attacking state Rep. Warren Chisum's (ultimately successful) attempts to write a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution. (Thompson is black; Chisum is white.) [April 29 issue]

2) "Our goal for this process was to create a policy of disablement, not deadly force, for African-Americans. It's not really a new policy, because in reality, white folks already have it."

– Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, discussing police proposals under the African-American Quality of Life Implementation Plan. [Nov. 4 issue]

3) "I'm flattered at the possibility of being the Democratic pallbearer, I mean standard-bearer."

– Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, to the Austin American-Statesman, on attempts to woo him to run as a Democrat. He added that such a switch is unlikely. [Aug. 12 issue]

4) "That's just how I roll."

– UT student Laura Ashley Hall, quoted by a witness in a police affidavit, on why she allegedly helped accused murderer Colton Pitonyak flee to Mexico. [Sept. 2 issue]

5) "Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog."

– Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle, on CBS's 60 Minutes. [March 11 issue]

6) "It's not up to the American Cancer Society or Lance Motherfucking Armstrong to tell me how to run my business."

– Bar owner Chip Tait, on the proposed anti-smoking ordinance. Voters passed the ordinance in a May 7 election. [March 4 issue]

7) "She is a very good bowler. For someone her size, she actually gets a lot of action out of the pins."

– Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten, when pressed for details about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. The New York Times, Oct. 16 [Oct. 21 issue]

8) "We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation, and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East.'"

– British playwright Harold Pinter, accepting the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature [Dec.23 issue]

9) "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."

– Molly Ivins, from her Sept. 15 column [Sept. 23 issue]

10) "Adios, mofo."

– Gov. Rick Perry's inadvertently on-camera dismissal of a Houston TV reporter, after he misunderstood the reporter's question about Perry's school finance plan. Later Perry apologized for the "inappropriate banter" that he insisted was actually directed at aide Robert Black. [June 24 issue]