Who cares what Whoopi thinks? God is she ugly. She is almost as Fugly as the 1st lady “RuPaul”

From what I understand (I think this was on one of the morning shows Sunday), the reason why they “weren’t prepared for this,” (not saying this is a good enough rationale, only their rationale) was because it was the backups that broke. IOW, the stuff that was supposed to prevent this, the last line of defense stuff, failed.

Imagine for a moment your driving along on the highway, and you realize your breaks aren’t working. Well, you do the next best thing, and pull the emergency break, and try to have that slow you down. Well, in BP’s case, the “emergency breaks” broke along with the regular breaks. In the analogy, you do everything you can do not to drive your car into another car or a tree… and hopefully slow down without too much damage. In BP’s case, they’ve hit about 100 other cars, 47 trees, 10 houses, and an ice cream truck… and continue to fly down the highway with no signs of stopping.

The point being, the answer to the question, “why weren’t they prepared for this,” might be, “they were prepared… they just weren’t prepared to have their backups break as well.” I suppose the question then becomes, how many backup systems is it reasonable to expect? And I suspect the answer to that question is, “at least one more than what they’ve currently got!”

I’m trying to understand, INB. When did you mean “brakes” and when did you mean “breaks”?

Fair enough, INB. It just seems that, if you’re you’re working with something this dangerous, you have back up plan after back up plan after back up plan.

The Real Royal King says:
June 8, 2010 at 4:46 pm

I’m trying to understand, INB. When did you mean “brakes” and when did you mean “breaks”?

You got me on that, King. Darn homophones.

Jon Bershad says:
June 8, 2010 at 4:52 pm

I’m inclined to agree with you on that. Although, I think they probably did/do have quite a few levels of backup… some of which were destroyed in the initial explosion, and some of which failed.

A few years ago, there was a fire where I work. Now, my building houses a few television networks, and broadcasts a half a dozen or more. Despite the entire building being shut down, all the networks were able to remain on the air… but some were able to do it more easily than others.

One network simply switched over to the off-site backup center halfway across the country. Another network switch to their main headquarters. While another network had to run things off tape, looping the same few shows and commercials over and over again.

When asked by that last network why we couldn’t do more, and why the other networks were faring better… the answer was easy, “They pay for yet another layer of backups.”

The point is… we have backs up to our main servers. We have off site backups to our on-site main and backup servers. And we have backups to the backups to the backups. And yet, every once in a while… that isn’t enough. Just like BP, even with our backup systems in place… it wasn’t perfect, and there were problems we never imagined could actually take place.

Sometimes even all the planning and backups everyone feels is necessary won’t be quite enough to prevent a disaster. Whether or not they had “enough” backups, we can’t say for sure. So let’s not confuse the issue and pretend they had none. Apparently, just not enough.

Jon: I agree with you In Re.: INB comments.
And to add to yours: Back-ups installed incorrectly (up side down), had weak/dead batteries, and many operating & safety rules bend or out right broken by most if not all the parties out there.
And that only sort of covers what happened then.
One could start a list of what happened when whole operation was planned.

I think the important thing here is that I, at least, have no idea what I’m talking about regarding the safety protocols on oil rigs. Therefore anything I say about “BP should have done this or that” is pretty irrelevant. And, INB, you’re completely right. Any company that’s installed, say, 133 back up systems is going to have to, at some point, stop building more.
I think it seems though, in my 100% laymen interpretation, that they should have had a contingency plan for the worst case scenario.

As I try to write that though, I’m thinking It’s kind of like the Wikileaks scenario. When that video got released, I felt that it was ridiculous for people to judge the actions of soldiers in a war zone while watching grainy footage from our living rooms. It’s the same thing here, really. Who are we to judge? However, it just feels different for some reason. It just FEELS like they could have done more to prepare. It’s a dumb and unfair position for people like us to have but, dammit, a lot of us have it and I think that’s why this Whoopi rant resonated the way it did.

I’m totally rambling here because I’m trying to defend my own hypocritical position. It’s one of those things where I just can’t rationalize away from my gut feeling that this could have been stopped.

Jon Bershad says:
June 8, 2010 at 5:50 pm

I think the aversion is if we say, “they had enough backups,” it’s almost like we’re giving them a pass. And for being responsible for such destructions, a “pass” is unacceptable.

I know exactly where you’re coming from. When there is a problem of this magnitude, “it’s just one of those things,” isn’t an acceptable answer to “how did it happen.”

What a joy to see on network television what needs to be said. That is why America loves Whoopi and the View (see their ratings)!

At least, Whoopi speaks from her heart.,and seems knowledgeable, unlike Elizabeth Hasselbeck that speaks from Fox & Hannity talking points. She never has a decent word for the President–period, but yet thought George Bush could do no wrong. Hasselbeck is an idiot.

If it comes to light that BP was cutting serious corners in the first place and their conduct was beyond negligent, I don’t give a damn how many of the backup systems failed in the second, third, forth or umpteenth place.
I’m willing to wait to see what comes to light before I draw any conclusions. If this was truly an accident that was unpreventable, fine. If this was a very preventable disaster, that is an entirely different matter.

I wish she would’ve gotten this worked up when talking about Polanski’s rape, but sadly she denied it was even considered rape. I guess if it doesn’t involve her shrimp, it’s not that important. I think her priorities could be slightly out of whack.

AngelPeters says:
June 8, 2010 at 8:22 pm

That’s fair.

DonnaK says:
June 8, 2010 at 7:34 pm

… but yet thought George Bush could do no wrong.

Unlike you, who thinks Obama can do no wrong.

It’s not the blind faith you object to… just the target.

INB, don’t you know that DonnaK actually voted for Bush or so she claims. She hates it when people say anything bad about obama, but doesn’t mind calling Bush and Palin idiots. How do you justify that again, DonnaK?

They are messing with Whoopi’s shrimp… and Obama’s golf game.

It’s so easy to blame the government, but the fact is, BP ordered the decisions that created this disaster. And it’s not the first time they’ve cut corners in their quest to maximize profits. When nothing goes wrong, we call it good business. And who cares about a few deaths or ecological disasters when you’re bringing in record profits.

Pipeline leaks, refinery explosions…..all par for the course for these guys. And anyone who knows anything about the company knows that it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. My father worked for Amoco for 30 years before BP bought them. He resigned from BP after 2 years b/c he found their business practices unethical. Turns out what he knew was only the tip of the iceberg.

Pathetic that the only thing flowing faster than the oil is the spew of bulls&%$. How these people haven’t gone to jail is beyond me.

Here’s some reading for those who want some more background: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/08/new-report-reveals-bp-s-long-history-of-safety-problems.html

@AmericanCowboy I care. She kinda looks like my mom.

hey… quit blaming BP for the oil spill…it will spoil the re “pubicans” effort to blame obama.
“memeber thats the platform for Nov….Obama blew up the pipe that caused the oil spill…the reason: duhhhhhhhh……. ..its obvious —so he could have Power and control. Jus t ask Winndbaugh–vannity- shits (or is it Snitz) ..or any stupid Right wing Tea bagger

I wouldn’t walk across the street to urinate on Whoopi Goldberg if she were on fire.