Mandatory evacuation was ordered for New Orleans on Sunday.

While leftists like Kanye West and Randall Robinson try to blame George W. Bush and racism for the situation in New Orleans, the city's mayor Ray Nagin is similarly trying to shift blame away from himself. You can read a transcript here of Nagin's expletive-laced radio interview from Friday, where he blames the federal government for the tragedy and makes excuses for the looters:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html

What people are overlooking is that local governments are primarily responsible for situations like this. That is the reason we have local and state governments. The mayor of New Orleans comes first in the chain of responsibility, followed by the state director of homeland security (who answers to the governor), the governor, the national director of homeland security, and then the president. Here is a telling news article from last Sunday, August 28th:

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?base/news-18/1125239940201382.xml&storylist=louisiana

A few key quotes from the article:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

So why is Bush to blame, I ask you? Wait, there's more:

The storm surge most likely could topple the city's levee system, which protect it from surrounding waters of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and marshes, the mayor said. The bowl-shaped city must pump water out during normal times, and the hurricane threatened pump power.

Really? The toppling of the levee was anticipated? Shouldn't there have been greater efforts to evacuate the city, both by the people and the (local) government?

Now, back to Mayor Nagin's radio interview. At one point he rants:

"You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly. And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now."

What about you, Mr. Mayor? It isn't your problem? You are more responsible for your city than the president and the governor. Shouldn't you "sit down" with them and "figure this out right now"? And he has some nerve making this statement:

"I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. I'm like, 'You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.'"

Well, here is a revealing picture: he had hundreds of buses! Look:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015

Why weren't these buses deployed during the mandatory evacuation?

The city government of New Orleans has more to answer for than other politicians.