Chia Obama

Look at it, in all its sprouting animated glory. I know.

Saw this on BoingBoing today. So there's a story behind this. Walgreen's decided to drop Chia Obama, and when they told the 76 year-old Chia Pet creator, Joe Pedott, he was bummed.

As reported here,

"I'm sick about it," Pedott, 76, said, disputing any suggestion that Chia Obama's Chia hair was mocking the Afro hairstyle.
"Obama had an Afro -- does that make him racist?" Pedott said. "So how the hell do you get racist out of it? And number one, you can give him a haircut."
Pedott said he is a Republican, but he voted for Obama and was just trying to do right by the new president.
"It's Americana," Pedott said. "I thought I would take the good name of Chia and support the good things that he's trying to do. ... That was a labor of love."
Pedott said he was so confident the Chia Obama was not offensive he even asked the Rev. Jesse Jackson to screen it when he ran into him recently at a Chicago eatery.
"He said, quote, 'I think this is a fine product,' end quote -- I have three witnesses," Pedott said.

Hey, he's got three witnesses. Personally I don't find Chia Obama racist. Doesn't anyone remember these?