Illegal immigration is bad and people who come into the country illegally are criminals. Alright, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can discuss whether or not it’s fair to compare human beings (criminals though they may be) to a toxic sludge that is killing thousands of plants and animals, ruining entire ecosystems, and destroying the livelihoods and altogether way of life of tons of people? That’s what Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) did yesterday when discussing his proposed amendment to build a 700-mile fence along the US border.

As a native Louisianan, James Carville has been affected more than most TV pundits by the seemingly interminable Gulf of Mexico oil leak, and he has been appearing regularly on CNN pleading with President Barack Obama to become more involved in the efforts to stop it. Tonight on Larry King Live, Carville didn’t seem as upset with the Obama administration as before, but, rather, concerned for the President, who he says has been misled and, having the power to make a signficant difference, has not done so.

Good Morning America‘s Sam Champion has been reporting from the Gulf Coast on the oil spill throughout the past month, but he showed ABC viewers a new perspective with an underwater report this morning from inside the spill itself.

Calling it “one of the most horrible things I’ve seen underwater,” Champion and the team of divers came out with a frightening segment.

It’s been almost a month since a BP oil tanker exploded off the coast of Louisiana, leaving a gushing oil well that has not stopped since. There is still no certain measure of the amount of oil being released into the Gulf of Mexico, and Keith Olbermann believes there’s a very good reason for that: BP, he claims, has a financial incentive in not measuring the spill, because the amount of oil released is what juries use to determine fines.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, and BP COO Doug Suttles held a press conference earlier today to update the media on the disastrous situation in the Gulf of Mexico. While they had no good news related to the sealing of the open oil well, they did have reports that the chemical dispersants were working, and that very little damage has been done to America’s shores.

When media outlets are expected to report on at least five massive news stories at the same time, one of those will probably be left by the wayside. In his piece “Why the Media Ignored the Nashville Flood,” Newsweek‘s Andrew Romano suspects that the devastating flooding in Tennessee was the unlucky cause. Without a political angle or a patron in the media, he argues, there was no compelling reason for outlets to cover the story more than any of the other incidents, though, given CNN’s thorough coverage last night, Romano might have jumped the gun.

Sarah Palin departed from her preferred platform of communication yesterday to weigh in on Twitter about the Louisiana oil crisis. The woman who coined the phrase drill baby drill (and stands by it, by the way) has somehow managed, in less than 140 characters, to connect the nation’s current furor over illegal immigration with the oil spill.

Jon Stewart, the world’s favorite media critic, summed up cable TV’s coverage of the Louisiana oil spill last night and then set parts of it to music. West Side Story, to be exact. In the beginning the coverage was all about size, baby, it was all about the size, baby. In other words, depending on your news broadcast of choice the oil spill is either as large as Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Jamaica, Ohio, and or Puerto Rico.

Just how bad does the Obama administration want you to not compare the current catastrophe in the Gulf to Hurricane Katrina? Pretty badly it would seem. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar did a Full Ginsberg (and then some) on the morning shows Sunday and relentlessly employed the term “day one” (16 times relentless).

To Bill Maher, nothing is sacred. And while he spent most of his career proving that by supporting those on his side of the aisle, last night he took some time to criticize public officials he has vocally supported, including the recently-deceased Ted Kennedy. Maher is “really mad” at the way the Obama administration has handled the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and refused to let go Kennedy’s resistance to wind energy just because he was no longer alive.

Today on the White House lawn, President Obama took time out from an event meant to honor the National Teacher of the Year to address the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The President announced that he has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the area, as well as swat teams to inspect the oil rigs in harms way. Judging by these comments and by media coverage, a the oil spill has usurped Arizona immigration as the news of the day.

A massive oil spill floating around the Gulf of Mexico has gone from an environmental concern to a homeland security menace, as it grew today to a size larger than the state of Rhode Island and is expected to hit the shores along the Gulf of Mexico later this week.