Posted on 01/22/2005 7:38:10 PM PST by nypokerface
VIENNA (Reuters) - California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a citizen of both the United States and Austria, should be stripped of Austrian citizenship for allowing a convicted murderer to be executed, an Austrian politician says.
Schwarzenegger rejected a clemency appeal by triple-murderer Donald Beardslee, which gave San Quentin prison the green light for California's first execution in three years on Wednesday.
"The death penalty is unacceptable in Austria and Europe. No Austrian citizen is allowed to take part in or order executions," Peter Pilz, the security spokesman for Austria's Green Party, told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) on Saturday.
Pilz, whose opposition Green Party is the smallest political group in parliament, said Schwarzenegger's support for the death penalty not only violates Austrian law but has damaged the country's image as a modern peace-loving nation.
"Schwarzenegger is probably the most prominent Austrian abroad and this creates an image of Austria overseas," he said.
Opinion polls routinely show that this Alpine nation of eight million overwhelmingly opposes the death penalty.
Pilz's campaign appeared to have little chance of success.
He quoted a section of the State Citizenship Act that allows the state to revoke citizenship if a person harms the state's interests in a grave way.
Pilz said that he sent a letter to the Austrian interior ministry formally demanding that Schwarzenegger's citizenship be revoked. Ministry officials were not available for comment.
What a bunch of girlie-men.
I'm tempted to call that an act of war.
big words for a country that was in Hitler's back pocket
Peter Pilz? That sounds like a great name for the official spokesman of Viagra.
Not to take them seriously.
Austria always changes their minds on this each time a new Reich comes along.
Their just doing damage control for the last Austrian that was a politician in a foreign land.
Leni
We will be fighting them again someday...
where is General Patton when you need him........
Hitler himself was an Austrian I believe...beyond that, if these guys are worrying that Arnold is creating a poor image of Austria, well, why don't they just strip him of his citizenship, that would be fabulous publicity, no doubt.
The fact is that Arnold's publicity for both Austria and America is priceless, IMO, some people just seem to be clueless.
liberals and their ilk aways seem to open their mouths before they think. They are not strategic like Karl Rove or most Repubs......they get emotional and blurt out stuff that is perfect cannon fodder for us..........
I agree that liberals don't think strategically. Socialists like Hillary do, though, which is why they are dangerous.
"Peter Pilz? That sounds like a great name for the official spokesman of Viagra."
LOL!!!!!!
Executing murderers is a good thing. Dead murderers never ever kill again, and the certain knowledge that committing a murder will get the perpetrator fried will stop future premeditated murders from happening.
Only a morally crippled Leftist can make a sin out of punishing guilty murderers while simultaneously making a sanction out of murdering innocent unborn children.
It is impractical to believe that the Austrian Greens could have that much leverage on Arnold. I was somehow of the belief that in order to take up US citizenship, it was first necessary to foreswear any allegiance to any foreign country.
I was aware that some children of foreign-born parents may sometimes have rights to a second citizenship, but that was a one-time choice to be made after being declared an adult or emancipated minor.
And they wonder about some of us being just a little squeamish about allowing foreign born citizens become president?
Well, if we dug him up and cloned him...
There's a thought.
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