If you're wondering why television news coverage of the oil spill is dwindling, you can thank the chemical dispersants that are pushing the oil to the bottom of the Gulf. No oil-covered birds on the shore means nothing to show on television. But...
In some cases, these dispersants could be more harmful, ecologically speaking, then letting the oil wash ashore. We don't know what's in these chemicals and there's a very high potential that they could do a lot of damage to the food chain in the Gulf. Indeed, that's why Exxon was constrained from using dispersants in Prince William Sound back in 1989.
This is a tragedy that's going to unfold over years, not months. But we won't know the extent of the damage because we're already beginning to move on and pay attention to things like Elena Kagan's softball skills. That is until people, and especially children, begin to drop dead from mysterious illnesses.
No matter how you slice this thing, it's awful, awful, awful. And to a significant extent, the American penchant for myopia and ignorance will be almost as guilty as BP, Transocean and Halliburton.
We are a nation of cover-up artists. And most people are good with that because the scope of the disasters we are confronting are overwhelming.