Verbatim

"We can all pitch in by being better conservers." GEORGE W. BUSH, announcing that in light of back-to-back hurricanes disrupting the country's oil refineries and distribution, federal workers are being encouraged to carpool or use mass transit

"So I guess you want me to be the superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans." MICHAEL BROWN, former director of FEMA, during a heated exchange with a congressional panel investigating what went wrong in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina

"I was not going to die tonight and stand before God, having done a bunch of ice." ASHLEY SMITH, Atlanta woman hailed in March for persuading the man who held her hostage--after killing a judge and three others--to surrender by reading aloud from the spiritual best seller The Purpose-Driven Life, in a new memoir revealing that she also gave him some crystal methamphetamine but refused to do drugs with him

"No enemy, whether it's an opposing force or a natural tragedy, is going to give us time to get fit." TERRY SCOTT, the Navy's master chief petty officer, on new initiatives to combat rising rates of obesity within the U.S. military

"If you wanted to reduce crime you could--if that were your sole purpose--you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." WILLIAM BENNETT, former U.S. Education Secretary, now a syndicated talk-show host. He added that it would be an "impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."

"I've enjoyed about as much ... as I can stand." KENNETH TOMLINSON, former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, convening his final meeting after a rocky two-year term in which he led a charge against what he called public television's "liberal advocacy journalism"

"We got a letter from Santa complaining about his reindeer's death and looked into it seriously." MORTEN JENSEN, spokesman for the Danish air force, which paid a part-time Santa Claus about $5,000 after flight data and veterinarian reports backed up his claim that F-16 jets screaming over his farm had frightened his animal, Rudolf, to death

Sources: CBS News; CNN; Atlanta Journal-Constitution; New York Times; AP; Los Angeles Times; AP