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Posted Wednesday, July 08, 2009 1:21 PM

Obama Makes Early, Unflattering Appearance on Mount Rushmore

Daniel Stone
Mount Rushmore is the kind of monument reserved for only the best U.S. presidents. The likenesses of only four—Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Jefferson—appear on the South Dakota rock structure. But environmental-activist group Greenpeace, both famous and notorious (depends who's asking) for its bold environmental protests, figured Barack Obama deserved to be there. Yet not quite for the reason you might think. Right next to the Lincoln sculpture, Greenpeace climbers unveiled a face-sized banner (65 by 35 feet) of Obama's face with the words "America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians: Stop Global Warming." The message was crafted to call out Obama for dragging his feet on global climate policy as he heads into the G8 policy conference this week in Italy. “While President Obama’s speeches on global warming have been inspiring, we’ve seen a growing gap between the president’s words and his actions,” Carroll Muffett, who heads Greenpeace campaigns, said from the scene.

The move was an impressive feat of daring. Newsweek has learned that a team of 12 experienced climbers prepped conspicuously for months planning for different scenarios to ensure that the action could be completed safely. The group also promised there would be no damage to the actual monument, which is solid granite. And all involved planned to spend several weeks behind bars.

Of course, the protest was aimed to get the attention of Obama and other world leaders, currently on the other side of the world. Asked whether the president or top advisers were aware of the protest and accompanying message, the White House had no immediate comment.
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Member Comments

Posted By: TruthForward (July 9, 2009 at 7:22 PM)

PETA will get him for swapping a fly. lol

I think these groups need to exist. But darn they've been silly lately.


Posted By: Pia1981 (July 9, 2009 at 3:56 PM)

Is this week the 'let's pick on Obama for everything he does' week? Let's see, on another article, a poster was disappointed because  when Obama had tea with Putin he ate caviar from an endangered species whale. How was he supposed to know the whale was endangered? Now, we have this  Mt. Rushmore nonsense. Leave the man alone. Sheesh.


Posted By: TruthForward (July 9, 2009 at 7:59 AM)

They using Obama to make their point. The got some attention. But the masses may not understand their point. I guess the masses will start inquiring.