Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman started holding press conferences and talking policy, and spent the better part of a week in high profile in the state's media. He said lots of stuff.Friedman wants to put 10,000 National Guard troops on the Texas-Mexico border, cap state spending (with increases allowed for population growth and inflation), legalize casino gambling, repeal the state's new business tax, give ID cards to legal immigrant workers and fine businesses for hiring undocumented workers, put $100 million into police budgets to fight crime caused by illegal immigration, cap increases in taxable home values at 3 percent per year, and increase salaries for teachers and spending on health care for children. "This stuff is simpler than it seems," he says. He said a lot more, too, which is why he's getting his own section this week.

Friedman, quoted by KHOU-TV on the subject of Katrina evacuees who came to Texas: "The musicians and artists have mostly moved back to New Orleans now. The crackheads and the thugs have decided to stay here. They want to stay here. I think they got their hustle on, and we need to get ours."

A few days later, talking about the reactions to that comment with the Associated Press: "How can you possibly regret that, telling the truth? I am not a racist. I am a realist. In looking at the statistics, I know that 20 percent of the homicides in Houston have been committed by the element in the evacuee population. I never said what color their skin was. I never said all evacuees are crack dealers or crackheads. I'm smarter than that."

Telling the San Antonio Express-News he regards political pandering to be racist: "I don't eat tamales in the barrio; I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto; I don't eat bagels with the Jews for breakfast. That to me is true racism."

Quoted by the Associated Press on letting non-violent criminals out of jail by legalizing marijuana: "I think that's long overdue."

Later, in the Houston Chronicle: "As a musician, I was stoned a lot of the time. And I probably raised a lot of hell, and was involved with a number of beautiful women as I recall, and I don't regret any of it. At least I never killed anybody. I mean, even (U.S. Sen.) Ted Kennedy can't say that."

After telling reporters he'd cap increases in state spending but would like to spend more money on teacher pay and other matters, asked what he'd cut to get that money: "I'd like to cut that question."