Macon, Georgia Residents Protest Mayor’s Solidarity Offer to Chavez

Congratulations, Democrats. Add another item to your ‘stupid’ column:

Macon, Ga. Residents Upset by Mayor’s Letter of Solidarity To Hugo Chavez
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

MACON, Ga. — Some Macon residents have called for demonstrations and boycotts after the mayor of the central Georgia city formally reached out to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with a declaration of solidarity Mayor Jack Ellis said the declaration, sent about two weeks ago by courier, was a message that local leaders can stand together despite disagreements at the highest reaches of government. Some local leaders have blasted the mayor’s decision to support Chavez, a vocal ally of Iran and Cuba who has called President Bush “the devil.”

Former mayoral candidate David Corr said the mayor’s comments were “an outrage.”

“We should condemn Chavez as an enemy of liberty,” Corr said. “In fact, we should also condemn Ellis as an enemy of liberty.”

State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, said the mayor’s action “taints” the town.

“I think it’s a negative for us,” he told The Macon Telegraph. “We need to be doing things in this community that show the tremendous positives of Macon.”

Ellis praised the controversial leader, who has subsidized the cost of heating fuel for some American low-income citizens, as a champion for the common man who could offer aid to Macon’s residents.

“This is about a humanitarian effort,” he said. “This is not about politics.”

A Venezuelan Web site reported that Chavez had thanked Ellis for his support during an eight-hour broadcast of his show “Alo, Presidente,” which he used to call for a “global alliance of civilizations to resist the attacks of U.S. imperialism.”

The mayor’s decision prompted 20 pages of comments on The Telegraph’s online message board before the newspaper decided to take it down. Some called for demonstrations and other ways to signal their distaste for the mayor’s move.

Ronald Johnson, a 71-year-old resident of nearby Houston County, called the move “treasonous” and is urging neighbors to boycott the city’s businesses until Ellis is rebuked by city officials.

“It’s unbelievable that he would do what he’s done,” said Johnson. “That is so wrong.”

Ellis, a Democrat, is serving his second term as mayor and cannot seek re-election because of term limits.

He announced in February that he had converted to Islam and was working to legally change his name to Hakim Mansour Ellis. Ellis, who was raised Christian, said he became a Sunni Muslim during a December ceremony in the west African nation of Senegal.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293197,00.html

The response from City Council:

City Council members to seek vote on Venezuela
White and Thomason: No Macon money for any trip to that country
By Matt Barnwell –
Fox News Channel to report live on Ellis’ Venezuelan proclamation

Two Macon City Council members announced plans Monday to introduce a resolution that forbids city funding of travel to any country certified by the U.S. Secretary of State as not fully cooperating with counter-terrorism efforts or designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Council members Nancy White and Cole Thomason, both of Ward V, said the resolution is in response to public outcry over Mayor Jack Ellis’ decision to send a declaration of “solidarity” to Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chavez.

“We just got inundated,” said White, who came back from vacation Sunday to find her e-mail and voice mail boxes filled with residents’ demands for the council to take action. “They want us to do something.”

The city purse strings, she said, are where the council can exercise its authority.

Also important, added Thomason, is to counter Ellis’ “publicity stunt” with an equally public response that makes clear the mayor’s actions do not speak on behalf of the city.

“His comments, as crazy as they may be, are going to have some lasting effect on all of us,” Thomason said.

Ellis, who left Monday for Africa and is expected to be out town for the rest of the month, last week confirmed he had sent the solidarity message by courier in July to Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas.

Ellis said he sent his message in his capacity as mayor of Macon and in his role as vice president for tourism for the World Conference of Mayors. However, the founder of that organization, Tuskegee, Ala., Mayor Johnny Ford, has since said Ellis’ actions were his own and were not sanctioned by the group.

Earlier this month, as he condemned ‘American imperialism’ on his weekly radio and television show, Chavez thanked Ellis for his pledge of support, according to Venezuelan Web sites.

Ellis also praised Chavez’s government, which rules one of the world’s top petroleum-producing countries, for donating heating fuel to the poor in America, the radio Web site says.

http://www.macon.com/198/story/112115.html

Ever notice that every time one of these ‘converts’ takes up Islam as a ‘religion’, they invariably reach out to some of the worst excrement in the sewer?

Kudos to the Macon citizenry and the City Council for refusing to be part and parcel to an Islamofascist toady and his new-found chums.  If Ellis wanted to focus on ‘humanitarian efforts’ he could have started at home.