We shit you not: One of the U.S. contractors in Iraq – one that was convicted of fraud, although the judgment was later set aside – is named Custer Battles.

Not exactly a name that makes you think they have a strategic vision, is it? Definitely not a good name for working in a war zone with an insurgent native population.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans recently sent a letter to nervy New Orleans attorney Bill Quigley requesting that he stop sharing with the equally nervy media his opinions about the plan of the housing authority, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to demolish public-housing complexes the government has deemed too damaged by Hurricane Katrina to fix. According to the Advancement Project – a D.C.-based civil rights group whose members, led by Quigley, have taken legal action against HUD and the Housing Authority on behalf of the damaged complexes’ former residents – New Orleans lost roughly half of its rental housing due to Katrina.

We should probably just make "stupid thing said by the Statesman editorial page" a daily feature, but this one particularly struck us: In today's tribute to the late Molly Ivins, the page tells us that (italics ours) "Molly appeared in Austin in 1970 as one of the editors of the feisty Texas Observer. In that era, when the Texas daily press was largely complacent and incurious …"

Guys, I know you meant to compliment her, but somewhere in heaven, Molly is laughing at you and rolling her eyes.

(Tell you what, just to be fair, we'll give the daily its props: Bruce Hight wrote an excellent rebuttal to Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson's regurgitation of that tired old lie: the notion that, for Southerners, slavery was not the central issue of the Civil War.)

Veteran El Paso Sen. Eliot Shapleigh recently released Texas on the Brink, a numerical snapsnot of how the state stacks up against the union's other 49. Its findings?

Texas is ranked first in its percentage of uninsured children and its income inequality between the rich and poor and second in the percentage of the population without health insurance. Scholastic Assessment Test scores are 47th highest in the nation, and last nationwide for nonelderly women with health insurance, or women over 40 who receive mammograms. The entire report is available at www.shapleigh.org.

Shapleigh has thrown himself into the Internet age head first, with exhaustive video diaries available on the Web site. (He's got his own YouTube page, fer chrissakes!) Here he is delivering the Texas on the Brink findings:

Rock on, Eliot.

There will be a vigil of sorts to commemorate the life of Molly Ivins tonight at City Hall (Cesar Chavez & Lavaca). Press release reprinted below:

GLOW FOR MOLLY
Community gathering hosted by fellow Austin women peacemakers

"RAISE MORE HELL." (MI)

Joe Hill said, "Don't mourne, organize." Well, Joe, us Texas-women-peacemakers, callused, but not necessarily hardened, have a slightly different philosophy: mourne briefly, celebrate for fuel and THEN redouble our organizing efforts!

"I still believe in Hope - mostly because there’s no such place as Fingers Crossed, Arkansas." (MI)

Tonight is the first of many upcoming public events to celebrate the incredible impact on the public consciousness, the extraordinary spirit and the Hope, that Ms. Molly had. As an example of her reach, after the 10pm news last night, the texasobserver.org website crashed by midnite from 750,000 new hits!

Austin's women working for peace have organized a gathering TONITE Thur., Feb. 1, 2007 – a "GLOW FOR MISS MOLLY" – at 6pm, at City Hall Plaza (Cesar Chavez & Lavaca).

We at Chronic have seen the future of student dorms, and it's nicer than where we live.

The Association of College and University Housing Officers International, a think tank for colleges to work out new ways to squeeze housing cash out of students, has just announced the winners of its 21st Century Project competition. The competition, sponsored in part by Texas A&M, dreams of a Jetsons-esque phütür, where students will live in modular accommodations with movable walls, plasma-screen homework, and flat-packed lecturers. Unfortunately for this utopian vision, the winning design, the JLA "flexDorm," features a "a one-piece sink and toilet."

Now, not to put too crude a spin on it, but when did any drunken frat-boy need encouraging to pee in the sink? And more importantly, will these idealized rooms with "smart-media walls" be more than an overpriced, socially exclusive way to piss money up the wall?

Great, more condos Downtown starting at half a million dollars: The Seaholm plans came to council today, and in a journalistic feat unmatched since they broke the great news about that "urban" Wal-Mart going in at Northcross, the Statesman has the glowing details. Namely that, aside from the price entry point ensuring it becomes a waterfront senior's home for retired Dell-first wavers and transplanted California porn-producers longing to live in the set from Tim Burton's Batman, the ambitious mixed use provisions include – wait for it – a two-story office building.

Aim for the sky, people.

Boston came to a screaming halt when aliens invaded and gave them the bird.

Austin had some street teams clamping magnetic advertising light boxes to walls. And went, “Oh, look, it’s Ignignokt, leader of the Mooninites.”

Electronic advertising devices that were mistaken for explosive devices brought Boston to a halt yesterday. It’s been widely reported that the Beantown Po-Po have charged two men with putting up magnetic ads for the upcoming spin-off movie from the Cartoon Network's animated show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters but a little less widely reported that the same light boxes turned up in a dozen cities – including Austin.

Nowhere else did the population start shrieking about terrorists. Or alien invasions. It’s been suggested that Boston was a little more edgy about potential terrorist attacks because of 9/11, but since 40 of the light boxes were put up in New York and no one got freaked out, that dog don’t hunt.

So does this mean that Austin is too blasé about potential IADs on its streets, or is Boston just so square that it can’t recognize a Mooninite when it sees one?

More on Boston mayor Thomas Menino's totally retarded reaction here.

State Representative Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) released the following statement on the passing of Molly Ivins: "I am deeply saddened to learn that my friend Molly Ivins has passed away.

I will always cherish fond memories of fellowship with Molly Ivins when she would visit Waco, and our friend, the late Mayor Mae Jackson.

Molly Ivins fought cancer with the same strength she fought for Texas. Molly – and her unequaled wit and mind – will be deeply missed, but she will always live on through her immeasurable contributions to our state and our country."


Remembering Molly Ivins, the first in a series of tributes from The Nation to Ivins, is available here.

Reaction from Heather Paffe, Texas Association of Planned Parenthood's political director, after the jump.