Austrians Against Arnold

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown of Graz, Austria has taken their favorite son's name off the local sports arena. From the International Herald Tribune's account:

The stadium had been named after Schwarzenegger in 1997 as an act of a kind of fealty toward the poor farmer's son and international celebrity who, though born in a little village nearby, was educated in Graz and has always readily identified it as his native place.

But when Schwarzenegger, now governor of California, declined to commute the death sentence for Stanley Tookie Williams, the former Los Angeles gang leader who was executed in California two weeks ago, the reaction in Graz, where the death penalty is seen as a medieval atrocity, was swift and angry.

Christ, where was the outrage when Jingle All the Way came out?

According to a local poll, 70 percent of Grazians (?) wanted the name to stay, but hell, they live in a democracy, so their votes don't count. And among the proposed names to replace Arnold's? Some want it to be called after the Crips, Tookie Williams' old club.

Whole thing here.