Schwarzenegger strips hometown of right to use his name (for the stadium)

[Kellanved]

Arnold Schwarzenegger preempted a move of his hometown's city council to rename the Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Stadium, following widespread criticism concerning his lack of clemency.
In a letter to the mayor of Graz, Siegfried Nagl, the Governor of California stripped the city of the right to use his name and returned the honorary ring of the city.
...
He demanded the removal of his name from the stadium until the end of the year, adding that his lawyers were preparing paperwork to stop the city from using his name for advertizing purposes.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,391381,00.html (German)

[Alpharetta]

1. what a dick

They should name the catch pond at a waste treatment facility after him, and dare him to sue.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Right-o, Alpharetta! Just like a (Enron, Ken Lay, Los Angeles, May '01)

Bushite--so mean, such stinking fascists, they like to strip their opposition of any power to oppose. Into smearing the faces of the weak and fearful into their own exrement, and machine gunning the strong until they're just splatters on a wall. That'll teach you who's the big dick around here.

[AnneD]

15. Actually,

steroids tend to effect nads so he may technically may qualify for a diminutive expression, say dickette, stubby, needle nads, whatever.
I like the waste treatment idea but want to reserve it for our fearless leaders.

[lebkuchen]

3. The Austrian Green party wants to call the stadium the...

Stanley Tookie Williams stadium.

[ET Awful]

4. Fuck Schwarzenfuhrer

I doubt seriously that the city really cares.

[Kellanved]

6. the mayor did

The Schwarzenegger factor made the city money, Schwarzenegger and Nagl are party friends. Nagl was very present in the Austrian media defending his idol.
Then again, good riddance: it was Arnie's one chance to have a city remembering him kindly.

[ET Awful]

7. He's running out of people that like him VERY quickly. n/t

[melissinha]

5. keyword: preempted

"preempted a move of his hometown's city council" He did it to save face because they just decided not to do it.

[frylock]

10. you can't fire me, i quit!

[melissinha]

12. dontcha wish that were the case

with Ahnuld and Dubya?

[lumpy]

27. I heard that the city had decided

some time ago to not use his name.

[Kellanved]

29. no, that was not the case

There was a debate on whatever or not to use the name, but no decision. A few American sources misinterpreted the actual situation.

[BenDavid]

8. Well, here again I can use

the phrase from the movie, "The Rock".... Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot."

[ret5hd]

9. Ahhhnold - the "One-Terminator" (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

11. By pre-empting the move ahnold is making the PR worse

If the city wanted to they could change it to his dad's name and ahnold couldn't do anything about it.

[lindisfarne]

13. How can he stop the town from using whatever name it wants? Surely he's

not the only "Arnold Schwarzennegger" in existence? (not that I think the stadium should have that name, but there is a principal here. Can my friend "Tom Johnson" stop everyone on the planet from using "Tom Johnson" in any capacity?)

[progdonkey]

26. that's what I was wondering, too...

Using Schwarzenegger's name on the stadium was to honor him; he wasn't endorsing the stadium or receiving proceeds from its sale or use.

If someone wants to use a picture of Ahnold in an ad without paying royalties for using his image, Ahnold has of course the right to issue a cease-and-desist order, but when his name is being used to honor him, on what grounds can he deny them the right to name the stadium after him? (The only instance where I would see someone as having such a right would be if, for instance, someone were to put someone else's name to a building in order to humiliate or ridicule that person, such as someone opening a store called "O'Reilly's Falafel Shack" with loufahs hanging all over.)

[SoCalDem]

14. They probably were looking for a way to un-name it after him anyway

[Orsino]

17. So says the original post.

Seems that Arnold is quitting before he gets fired.

[davidinalameda]

22. one could only hope that would be the case here in Cali

[hyphenate]

16. What an idiot

They WANT to take his name off the building! So what the fuck does he do? He goes and tells them they can't use it anyway?

He is such a fucking egomaniac! I hope the city disowns him, and makes it public knowledge that he's not wanted around anymore!

[Kellanved]

18. Here's an English story about it

Governor gets tough with Graz officials; demands they pull his name from stadium

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter to the mayor of his hometown in Austria Monday demanding that the local sports stadium no longer bear his name.
The governor was reacting to reports that politicians in Graz had petitioned to remove his name from the stadium because Schwarzenegger denied clemency to Stanley "Tookie" Williams.

"I rejected the clemency plea of a rightfully condemned four-time murderer after thorough review and as a result, he was executed according to the laws of this state," Schwarzenegger wrote Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl.
"In all likelihood, during my term as governor I will have to make similar and equally difficult decisions. In order to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenauer Stadium."


...


http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/13997065p-14830357c.html

[Book Lover]

21. Thanks!

The translator at freetranslation.com was doing an odd job of Der Spiegel's story... I do feel sorry for those in Graz whose livelihoods depended on Arnie's star power to help boost tourism, though.

[KamaAina]

19. "You can't fire me! I quit!"

Same level of mentality. Isn't it great that the grownups are back in charge? :sarcasm: Looks more like the Kindergarten Cop to me!

[nonconformist]

20. Could he be a bigger asshole? nt

[fortyfeetunder]

23. That's a bully move

He knows his ass is grass in Europe, as witnessed by the outcry after his clemency move, so he tries to circumvent it. Bully the city. Yeah, right.

Face it Ahnold, you are no example for your homeland Austria. The city doesn't need your permission to not use your name.

[not systems]

24. SFGate story here...

I hope they strip the over stuffed bag of shit of his dual citizenship
or better yet try him for murder... since he has twice violated their
laws.


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/20/GUV.TMP

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, angry at the uproar over his refusal to spare the life of convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, told his hometown of Graz, Austria, to take his name off the city's 15,000-seat soccer stadium.

In a harsh, sometimes bitter letter faxed Monday to Graz Mayor Siegfried Nagl, Schwarzenegger said his name should be pulled from the stadium's walls by the end of the year and that "in the future, the use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is not allowed.''

...


"I assumed at the time that it was a token of sincere friendship between my hometown and me,'' Schwarzenegger said in the letter. "Since, however, the official Graz appears no longer to accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me.

"It is already in the mail."

[Mizmoon]

25. It's his right - they did bad mouth him

I might do the same in his shoes.

[Kellanved]

28. that begs the question: who's "they"?

The notion to remove the name was introduced by the greens and seconded by the social Democrats.

The majority of the council, the extreme nationalists and the conservatives, opposed the notion. There was no vote on the matter and with Schwarzenegger's party-mates in power, a renaming was unlikely to happen. Especially as Styria is a state with a large number of extreme RW voters and quite a few pro-DP folks.

It looks more like a staged op to show that Arnie is a "decider", while getting rid of the pesky European roots.