Posted on 12/20/2005 9:02:42 AM PST by GermanBusiness
The following are excerpts from an AP story from Jenn Coleman today.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday told officials in his hometown in Austria to remove his name from a sports stadium and stop using his identity to promote the city. SNIP He asked that the lettering be removed by year's end. SNIP (Description of how Graz gave Arnold a ring) ``Since, however, the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail,'' the governor wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Give em Hell Arnie BUMP!!
Good. He did the right thing. It's too bad he hasn't been guided by these principles in performing his duties as Governor of California.
This move, admirable as it is, is mainly symbolic and personal. It has the added advantage of putting him in a favorable light, as the man who repudiates changeable politicians rather than the man judged and repudiated by his native city.
This action may have political reverberations in Austria, but governing Austria is not his primary job. His conduct as governor of California is his primary responsibility, which he accepted by running and taking his oath of office. Unfortunately he has consistently failed to do the job he was elected to do.
I remember after 91 Schwarzkopf was a "German" according to the Germans, of course the Bush and Rumsfeld families are not seen as German today though they both still have family there :)
If they like you or you were successful then they'll claim you as their own. Of course if they don't like you and you were a disaster then you're an "American".
Ask a Russian if Sikorsky was an American. lol It's always the same game when it comes to this!
Red6
I like the part where the ring they gave him is already in the mail. I have to give the govenor credit for standing by his decision to uphold the California death penalty. I can't imagine a more terrible decision to have to make, even where the issue is clear-cut. If the city of Graz thought that they could score some cheap political points at Arnold's expense, he has turned it back on them.
Do you have any idea how much promotion the city does with Arnold's name? It can't be THAT much, can it?
Too bad he won't do that here in CA.
He is to Graz what Jordan is to Chicago.
Dude! Let's start naming Austrians with high "Q Score". O.K., there's Arnold, and...
I think someone in Graz is going to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over this. In Italy, at least, politics are very much entwined with sports.
For young men in Austria, Arnold was and is a role model. The conservatives in Austria are going to seize this like red meat. Arnold made it clear that it was the elected officials of the city council that he was dissing...
I have no doubt that Arnold struggled with the Tookie decision. Too often, making the right choice is the hardest path to follow. FWIW, IMO, Arnold made the right decision.
It is laughable that the political left in Austria took a gamble that will cost them far more than it will cost Arnold. This is what happens when the losers throw a temper tantrum and take their marbles and go home.
Things are starting to get good already. The Kurier reports how the conservative mayor of Graz is heavily blaming the leftist City Council and calling them "leftists" by name. He is begging Arnie to keep the ring and to be saying "I'll be back" real soon. Here is the article:
http://www.kurier.at/chronik/1220275.php
"Zum Abschluss möchte ich noch einmal ausdrücklich betonen, dass ich weiterhin mit ganzem Herzen Grazer, Steirer und Österreicher bleiben werde. Ich werde Graz auch, sobald es mir meine Zeit erlaubt, wieder gerne besuchen."
Here, Arnold is telling the people of Graz and the Steirmark (equivalent of the state of California) as well as Austrians that he is still one of them and wants to be back in Graz real soon.
In other words: The Terminator is not afraid to head back to Graz in 2006 to politically terminate the communists and social democrats. He plans to come right at them.
I predicted that this would happen because the stadium renaming talk would have deeply hurt his feelings and he would have decided that Austria finally needs to have a real right/left debate like the USA got post 9-11.
The self-rightous leftist city council is going to end up with egg on their face.
As do all leftists do when they pull this crap.
You are incorrect and I disagree
Arnold has been incapable of reforming CA because it's chocked full of Democrat socialists and Unionists at every level of state & local govts, career and elected, who fight his every reform proposal tooth and nail.
And much like W, Hollyweird and media have been hammering him since day one.
Do you have a clue as to the hypocracy of America's limosine liberals who cry for more taxation to buy their party's votes with, while they themselves avoid taxation at all costs in family trusts, offshore accts and other tax dodges that have always been available to the very wealthy?
And let's not forget that this is the state with the industry that for 50 years has been lying about HUAC and Sen Joe McCarthy. Venona PROVES beyond doubt that indeed American members of the communist party were indeed taking orders from Moscow and not just Americans of different political views as they always lied they were. California is STILL highly invested intellectually in their "glory" Red days of yore - and miss it sorely as cLooney's new movie demonstrates.
So the entire state body politic rejects the freedom of capitalism and prefers the socialism that always preceeds tyranny eventually, as Striesand and Clooney avoid paying for it.
"...he would have decided that Austria finally needs to have a real right/left debate like the USA got post 9-11."
Let's hope.
Use the title at the source. Every time. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.