I learned these things from a number of sources (mostly other FReepers), so this is a distillation of the work of other people than myself.
Patriciaruth, much of what you posted is right on the money...a lot of this came out in O'Reilly's discussion with Col Hunt. Gov. Blanco bears a lot of responsibility in this situation but you won't hear her name mentioned by her Dim colleagues.
Good information. I have copied it and will be armed with it when inevitably some of my more liberal friends and co workers start their "It's Bush's fault" diatribes.