Gulf residents slam BP CEO for yacht outing..."I don't think he has any feelings"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Gulf residents slam BP CEO for yacht outing
'I don't think he has any feelings,' one La. business owner complains

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37798557/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/



A workers washes the oiled grass in Barataria Bay Saturday near Grand Isle, La.

NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 1 hour, 35 minutes ago



BP CEO Tony Hayward's decision to take time off Saturday to attend a glitzy yacht race in England was assailed by critics who said he was "just numb" to the plight of Gulf Coast residents struggling with the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

"Man, that ain't right," said Bobby Pitre, 33, who runs a tattoo shop in Larose, La. "None of us can even go out fishing and he's at the yacht races. I wish we could get a day off from the oil too."

As social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook lit up with anger, BP spokespeople rushed to defend Hayward, who has drawn withering criticism as the public face of his company's efforts to stop the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Robert Wine, a BP spokesman at the company's Houston headquarters, said it's the first break Hayward has had since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the undersea gusher.

"He's spending a few hours with his family at a weekend," Wine said Saturday. "I'm sure that everyone would understand that."

Not Mike Strohmeyer, who owns the Lighthouse Lodge in Venice, on Louisiana's southern tip. He said Hayward was "just numb."

"I don't think he has any feelings," Strohmeyer said. "If I was in his position, I think I'd be in a more responsible place. I think he should be with someone out trying to plug the leak."

Wine said Hayward is known to be keenly interested in the annual race around the Isle of Wight. It's one of the world's largest such races, attracting more than 1,700 boats and 16,000 sailors as famous yachtsmen compete with wealthy amateurs in the 50-nautical mile course around the island.

Hayward was watching his 52-foot yacht "Bob," made by the Annapolis, Md.-based boatbuilder Farr Yacht Design. It has a list price of nearly $700,000.

[cutlassmama]

1. The entitlement attitude of most of the rich is sickening. This man needs

to be fired for incompetence at best.

[bigwillq]

2. K and R (nt)

[Cresent City Kid]

3. If he was at the World Cup, that would raise eyebrows

That he was near the water, oil free water, raises blood pressure.

[Urban Prairie]

4. "I don't think he has any feelings"

Nope, Hayward is a classic example of a wealthy vacuous sociopath.

I doubt if he cares about the ecocidal catastrophe, other than how his legacy has been altered by it into becoming an infamous corporate pariah.

[MiniMe]

5. I refuse to comdemn him for this

There is plenty to condemn him on. I don't condemn Obama for playing a round of golf, or playing basketball, or even going to a White Sox game, and I won't be a hypocrite. Everybody needs a little bit of down time. I have heard from Hasseltwit on the view complaining that Obama has played golf while the oil spill is going on, and I think it is ridiculous. There are so many other things to condemn him for.