This diary was originally written once the lessons of Hurricane Katrina had sunk in a bit. This week is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Two years ag...I remember watching on the weather channel as a category 5 hurricane was bearing down on the Gulf Coast and thinking, "THAT is going to be really bad."

But no one in the Bush Administration seemed to think that. They thought about celebrating John McCain's birthday, buying shoes in NYC, vacationing...while one hell of a hurricane was bearing down on America's Gulf Coast.

The people of America's Gulf coast didn't matter to the Bush Administration. Those people we watched die of neglect in New Orleans died because Republican America considered them insignificant...worthless...useless.

There are those who claim that Hillary Clinton is congenitally and pathologically unable to take a position, any position, on anything, other than that of insistent supplicant on the fundraising circuit.

These people are entirely wrong. Hillary is capable of taking at least one position: she wants the U.S. military presence in Iraq to continue into the first term as President this vain, substance-free woman has deluded herself into believing she can win.

E Pluribus Media:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a "remaining military as well as political mission" in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds and possibly support the Iraqi military.

Or maybe these people are entirely correct. Asked whether she agreed with the recent comments by General Pace, who happens to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that homosexuality is immoral, she said:

"Well, I'm going to leave that to others to conclude."

Good thing that she's not running for President and people don't care what her opinion is, right? Oh wait, she is; never mind.

Every day that dawns brings a new reason to doubt Hillary Clinton. This is not leadership; it's leadering, something that looks like leadership, but is not. Too bad for Hillary that more and more Americans are noticing the difference.

[Update]: New York Blade says 'Hillary is a poor choice for gay voters'. Zing!

The New York Times had a deeply disturbing article in Sunday's Arts section. The article describes several exhibitions on Moses, and flowing from them, an effort to rehabilitate his name, which has since Robert Caro's The Power Broker never quite recovered.

“It could be that ‘The Power Broker’ was a reflection of its time: New York was in trouble and had been in decline for 15 years. Now, for a whole host of reasons, New York is entering a new time, a time of optimism, growth and revival that hasn’t been seen in half a century. And that causes us to look at our infrastructure.”

“A lot of big projects are on the table again, and it kind of suggests a Moses era without Moses,” added [Kenneth T. Jackson, a historian of New York City at Columbia who co-edited the exhibition catalog].

It's true enough that we have a new Moses era, but that requires us to precisely not forget his legacy. And that legacy is mixed. Robert Moses destroyed the South Bronx and built the Cross-Bronx Expressway. He built hundreds of playgrounds in Manhattan, only one of which – according to The Powerbroker, it was decorated with little brass monkeys playing – was north of 125th Street. Robert Moses segregated previously integrated neighborhoods. The parkways leading out to the open air, the ones he built while starving mass transit, feature pretty little bridges built so low that no buses can use them, cutting off the poor (read: the black) from this bounty. Robert Moses' racism permeates literally all he has done. Along the way, he engaged in staggering acts of corruption that would be impossible today, the best efforts of Joe Bruno and Efrain Gonzalez notwithstanding.

Jesse Hamilton, currently a contender in the race to fill Yvette Clarke's seat, is reaching out to the blogs. That's all good.

What's vaguely troubling is the message he's sending. Take for example this from Room 8:

We should not seek to build housing which only benefits single people or childless couples. Giving tax breaks to developers who bring to market studios and one bedrooms as affordable housing units sends the wrong message about who we are trying to encourage to stay and prosper in NYC. Affordable, multiple bedroom housing should be the goal of any changes in the 421 A and also 421 B laws seeking to create new housing.

What, singles can move elsewhere?

It's worth pointing out that per the U.S. Census, in the 11th Congressional District, which wholly covers the 40th City Council District, only 34.1% of females and 44.0% of males are married (the U.S. average is 52.1% and 56.7% respectively). Concurrently, however, average household and family sizes in the 11th are slightly above the U.S. average, at 2.71 people per household and 3.38 per family. So there is most certainly room for debate about more multi-bedroom apartments; but that debate could be held positively, not by talking about right and wrong kinds of people, and should also include the question of cost. It's not a zero-sum game in any sense of the word.

With Bouldin away at the front fighting one last rearguard action in the War on Christmas, it falls to me to break the bad news here at home: when the music stops after the 2010 census, New York will lose at least one, and possibly two seats from its congressional delegation.

And who stands to gain from our loss? Sunny Florida. I know what you're thinking: the last thing this country needs is more politicians from Florida. Well, get used to it.

Hotline Blog has more:

Polidata’s Clark Bensen also observes that Florida (currently with 25 seats) is now poised to replace New York (29 seats) as the third most populous state – and that both states might end up with 27-member delegations when the dust settles after reapportionment.

Sixty years ago, no one would have believed that Florida and New York might one day have House delegations of equal size. In the 1940s, the New York delegation was a 45-member congressional powerhouse while Florida was a puny 6-seat weakling. But between 1942 and 2002, Florida gained 19 seats while New York lost 16.

And, of course, New Yorkers have nobody to blame for this but ourselves: