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T-shirts sold by Mulligan's Food & Spirits show the character Curious George above Barack Obama's name.


Cobb bar protested as racist for Obama T-shirts

Mulligan's selling shirts with 'Curious George' picture

By CHRISTIAN BOONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 05/13/08

Marietta tavern owner Mike Norman says the T-shirts he's peddling, featuring cartoon chimp Curious George peeling a banana, with "Obama in '08" scrolled underneath, are "cute." But to a coalition of critics, the shirts are an insulting exploitation of racial stereotypes from generations past.

"It's time to put an end to this," said Rich Pellegrino, a Mableton resident and director of the Cobb-Cherokee Immigrant Alliance. It was among the organizations gathering outside of Mulligan's Bar and Grill Tuesday afternoon to protest the "racist and highly offensive" shirts.





"There's no place for these views, not in this day and age," he said.

Just down the street from Marietta's famous Big Chicken, Mulligan's has carved a provocative niche in an increasingly multicultural area, thanks to its owner's ultra-conservative political views. If you live in Marietta, it's impossible not to know what's on Norman's mind, as he posts his views on signs in front of Mulligan's.

Among his recent musings: "I wish Hillary had married OJ," "No habla espanol — and never will" and the standard "I.N.S. Agents eat free."

"I'm saying out loud what everyone in this town whispers," Norman said.

Whatever residents think of the signs, organized opposition to his blunt commentaries — ongoing for 16 years — had been nonexistent. No longer, says Pellegrino, who, though familiar with Norman's politics, said he was still surprised by the stark imagery of the Obama T-shirts.

"There's a lot of people hurt by this," he said.

Norman said those offended are "hunting for a reason to be mad" and insisted he is "not a racist."


Why picture Obama as Curious George? "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George," Norman said.

He said it's just a coincidence that the character he chose for the t-shirt is a monkey. Norman said proceeds raised from sales of the T-shirts will be donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Nation of Islam and the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials were among the organizations represented at Tuesday's rally.

"Mulligan's is promoting and selling racially offensive T-shirts, and Marietta and Cobb County residents and taxpayers abhor and cannot condone, any longer, this type of divisive and incendiary behavior in our community," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of GALEO.

Pellegrino said Mulligan's is giving Marietta a bad name, adding that the critics intend to remain vocal.

"These T-shirts were almost a Godsend," he said. "We're a coalition now, and we're very determined."

Even Old People.. Aint Worth a Damn!

Accused hit-run grannies squabbled in custody

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Two elderly women accused of killing two transient men with a car so they could collect nearly $3 million in insurance money were videotaped talking about the scheme while in FBI custody, the prosecutor said in opening statements Tuesday.

Helen Golay, 77, is accused of befriending homeless men, taking out insurance policies, and killing them.

"It's your fault," Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, told co-defendant Helen Golay, 77, in the tape played for the jury. "You can't have that many insurers. ... You were greedy. That's the problem."
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Truc Do said the women befriended the two men, took out insurance policies on their lives, then drugged them and ran them over to make it look like the two homeless men had been killed in hit-and-run accidents.

Rutterschmidt and Golay each have pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain in the deaths of 73-year-old Paul Vados in 1999 and 51-year-old Kenneth McDavid, 51, in 2005.

"We have evidence to show she's not guilty," Golay's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, said in an interview Monday. "They have over 100 witnesses but they have no eyewitness, no confession. It's all circumstantial."

The prosecutor told the jury the women found the men in a homeless shelter at a Hollywood church, set them up in apartments and supported them for two years, all the while taking out multiple life insurance policies on them.

Do said the women ultimately profited of the deaths with $2.8 million and were still trying to collect on policies when they were arrested.

The jury also was shown pictures of the victims' bodies, receipts for rent, a car that has been linked to one of the killings and a rubber stamp with one victim's signature that was allegedly used to sign insurance policies.

The case began in 2006 in federal court with a grand jury indicting the women on nine counts each of mail fraud and related charges for making false insurance claims. But when further evidence developed in the alleged hit-and-run scheme, the case was transferred to Los Angeles County Superior Court and murder charges were filed.