Bar owner criticized for Obama T-shirts

MARIETTA, Ga., May 13 (UPI) -- A Georgia bar owner has come under fire for selling T-shirts of a cartoon monkey with the slogan "Obama in '08."

Mike Norman, owner of Mulligan's Bar in Marietta, Ga., said he isn't trying to be racist by selling political T-shirts featuring a picture of Curious George holding a banana above the slogan "Obama in '08," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

Critics argue the shirts are offensive and strongly encourage stereotypes based on racism.

"It's time to put an end to this," Rich Pellegrino, director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance, told the newspaper.

The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials was one group planning to join the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Nation of Islam in a Tuesday rally in front of the bar, the Journal-Constitution said.

Norman said people who are upset by the shirts are "hunting for a reason to be mad" and and he intends to give profits from selling them to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.