Katrina metaphor watch

If one good thing comes out Katrina, besides a new home for Trent Lott, it will surely be the supply of new metaphors for tired hacks everywhere -- jazzing up their column inches with a New Orleans reference. Here we are so far:

Wall Street Journal:

A Descent Into Indecency
In New Orleans, moral levees are inundated too.
BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN

Times of London:

After the Katrina tragedy, the looters come with their lies and half-truths
Gerard Baker

CATASTROPHE, as is the natural order of things, brings out the best in most humans, and the worst in some. When Katrina struck the US Gulf Coast this week, the first images reflected man’s instinctive compassion, heartening tableaux of daring rescues and selfless giving.

Then, of course, came the looting ... In Katrina’s case, the intellectual looters have busied themselves with plundering half-truths and false analyses to advance one of their most precious agendas: global warming.

(to be updated)

UPDATE 4 SEP: Dubya's speechwriters join in the hackery: I told some folks back there that the world saw this tidal wave of disaster ascend upon the Gulf Coast, and now they're going to see a tidal wave of compassion.