Today we confronted the Pirate Pawlenty at his big photo-op on the Minnesota waters

[Bjorn Against]

Ahoy Mateys! Today thar be a pirate on th' low seas o' Minnesota, and he wasn't jus' any pirate but he be the worst kind of pirate. This be a swashbuckler who steals from the poor to give to the rich mateys, but today we took our boat to the low seas o' White Bear Lake to confront this cutthroat.

The Pirate Pawlenty has been holding Minnesota hostage for the past six years, and in this time he has consistently protected the wealth of his friends by cutting services to the most vulnerable Americans. Today this cutthroat not only wants to continue to run our state, but he wants to become President so that he can bring his treachery to all the lands and waters of America.

Today the Pirate Pawlenty had one of his biggest press events of the year, it was fishing opener in Minnesota and media from all corners of the state was there to cover Pawlenty's fishing expedition. We needed to expose this swashbuckler for what he was so we prepared to set out to sea to confront the Pirate Pawlenty.





We decked out our ship with banners and signs and we set out to sea, as we approached the docks where the pirate was set to launch from we were spotted by some of Pawlenty's mates who did not like the way our ship was decorated. They told us to go home, but we told them this was our home and we needed to protect the low seas of Minnesota. A few minutes later we saw Pawlenty's boat speed by us and the chase was on. We followed him to the middle of the lake and circled his boat for a while before riding back up close to shore to remind the people on land that there was a pirate nearby. After a bit of a break we returned out to sea, and Pawlenty was still fishing out there. I held up my sword and yelled “AAARRRGGG”, and then I heard some laughs and another “AAAARRRRGGGG” coming from his boat.



But then a few minutes later Pawlenty tried to escape and sped back towards shore where he could fish in a place in which all the press could see him. We followed him and there was a canoe in the waters nearby who were on our team to confront the pirate. We had our boat and the canoe move in on Pawlenty and the sheriffs who were protecting him, now Pawlenty was not laughing any more and he was angry that we were following him. After a few minutes he sped by the canoe and scowled at the mates on board.



We needed to follow him, but we had to get assistance first and there were a couple people who had been on shore with their banners that wanted to join us in our efforts to track down the pirate. We pulled up to the dock and they boarded our ship and we set back out to sea. Soon however the sheriff pulled up to our boat to confront us. They told us that the dock we went to was private property, but it was commercial private property and we had people there all morning and the owner had never complained. But now as we were all off the property the sheriff decided to confront us for tresspassing despite the fact that we were now on public waters. He checked out our boat to see if he could find any reason to fine us, but we were all legal so he could not do anything and he was forced to let us go.



We cruised the waters for a while until we spotted several boats up ahead and we knew that was where Pawlenty was. We started to bring our ship in closer and he got angry and immediately sped off, we followed in pursuit but his boat was a lot faster than ours so he left our sight for a while. We found his boats again a few minutes later but as soon as we spotted them his boat started to speed away, so we turned around to follow it in pursuit. We immediately realized however that something was wrong, the sheriffs boats were not following Pawlenty's boat, and there was one less person in red aboard. Pawlenty must have gotten on a different pirate ship to trick us, and so we turned around to see if we could find him but he was gone. The Pirate Pawlenty had escaped from us, but we had him on the run and we ruined his photo op so we were able to go home with a small victory on our hands.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. LOL Good for you!!

Great story!!

[blogslut]

2. Damn fine work!

Public shaming is the best and your efforts were stellar!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Yaarrgg!

Good job, mateys.

[spanone]

4. i love to see the first amendment in action

[pleah]

5. Arg, awesome, arg!

[Union Yes]

6. YAARRR I love it! K&R

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Excellent work! Are those your photos!?

If so, I'd like to put one on Pawlenty's Truthiness page (http://www.wikiality.com/Tim_Pawlenty )

Also, you're welcome to post everything you know about Pawlenty on the page--just make sure you register a free account so no one can see your IP address.

I started it with blank sections, which you can edit individually.

If you have any questions, drop me a note.

[Bjorn Against]

8. I took some photos, but these ones were taken by my friends.

I can however give you permission to post these, these photos were taken by Greg and Sue Skog and believe me they would love it if you posted them elsewhere.

[ColbertWatcher]

12. I'd like to give full and proper credit, what day were they taken and ... (EDITED TO ADD)

... on what body of water is that on and which city is it near?

Thank you for your response.

(ADDED)

Is he in any of the pictures in your OP, if so, which one?

[Bjorn Against]

14. They were just taken this morning

And this happened at White Bear Lake which is the name of both the lake and the city.

Pawlenty is in the fourth picture down, he is the guy standing up at the back of the motor boat near the shore with the red suit and white hat.

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Okay, just to be sure ...

... starting at the left, there is one boat that is cut off by the image, then there is a boat with three people in red.

Pawlenty is on that boat?

Is he the first one from the left?

[Bjorn Against]

18. That is correct

[ColbertWatcher]

20. I'm sorry, one more question: what does PACE stand for? n/t

[Bjorn Against]

22. Pace is the Italian word for Peace

[ColbertWatcher]

23. Oh, so the rainbow flag?

That has nothung to do with GLBT rights?

Or ... better yet, describe the different flags. Do they represent any particular group/cause?

Sorry to be such a bother, but I just want to make sure I get all the details and get them right.

[Bjorn Against]

24. The pace flags are peace flags and are not directly related to gay rights

Of course while the flags are not directly related to gay rights some people interpret them as supporting gay rights, and because we all support gay rights it is fine with us if people interpret them that way.

We had two Pace flags, an American flag, and we also flew a kite which said "Tax the Rich Pawlenty".

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Was there an official "we" that promoted the protest? n/t

[Bjorn Against]

26. This was purely a grassroots effort, we did not have any organization sponsor us.

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Well, I think it was great!

I wonder what he thought when he saw you guys!

LOL!

Anyway, here is the page where the picture is (http://www.wikiality.com/File:TimPawlentyMotorBoatPirat... ) with all the info I posted about it and if you scroll down, you can see which page it's used on.

[Bjorn Against]

9. We made the Star Tribune.

Go through the slideshow and you will see our picture.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/44643662.htm...

[malaise]

13. Love the caption

Pawlenty's fishing opener didn't go without controversy as protestors boated on White Bear Lake as the Governor talked about his upcoming veto.

[Jazzgirl]

10. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For ruining the assholes afternoon!!!!

[Bjorn Against]

19. You're welcome...

But this actually happened in the morning, which hopefully means that we ruined his whole day.

[malaise]

11. Way cool

I hope you make KO and Rachel...freaking original. Bravo!!

[Wednesdays]

15. K and Arrrrrrrr!

[Bjorn Against]

16. ...

Thanks.

[mascarax]

21. Cool! Thanks for posting...

So glad you ruined his photo op. I'm sure he was ticked so - great job!

[Bjorn Against]

27. The St. Paul Pioneer Press also acknowledged us.

That's not to say there weren't some folks expressing dissatisfaction.

A pontoon boat with the banner "Pirate Pawlenty, Holding Minnesota Hostage" floated off the shore while the governor addressed an early-morning crowd of anglers. One-time FBI whistleblower and former Democratic congressional candidate Coleen Rowley held a like-minded banner on shore and said her group was protesting the governor's pledge of "no new taxes."

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_12335832?ncli...

[Cha]

28. Great pics, Bjorn..thank you

all! pawlenty needs to be brought down on so many levels.

[TheKentuckian]

29. Way to hunt them down.

[livefreest]

31. ROTFLOL

[wellstone dem]

32. That is wonderful!

Maybe next year he'll think that if he travels beyond the well-to-do suburban lakes, he'll be safe. What a wonderful way to start his day, and yours.

ARGHHHH!

[sazemisery]

33. You definitely earned your grog. K&R

good job

[Politicub]

34. Great job! Amazing protest

You really made Pawlenty walk the plank!

[jimmil]

35. I know nothing of Minnesota politics..

However, if citizens can make a politician squirm like a worm they no doubt have something to hide. Good work!

[ensho]

36. super! - gold stars all around

nt

[Fireweed247]

37. well done!!

[Odin2005]

38. Timmy the Tool can take his veto and shove it up his rear.

[Canuckistanian]

39. Yarr, ye scuttled that Pawlenty scurvy dog well!

He knows he's going to be hounded whether on land or sea.

Three Cheers for you, matey!

[mzmolly]

40. Bravo Matey!

A to you and your fellow shipmates.

[Bjorn Against]

41. Former FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley wrote a great piece about this for Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/whats-fishy...

[kaygore]

42. How does the bastard keep getting elected?

[Bjorn Against]

43. He has never won a majority of the vote in this state...

He is able to get elected because this state has strong third parties and no instant runoff voting which means that quite often our elections are decided by less than a majority.

[Webster Green]

44. I love it!

Great protest!

[Vinca]

45. The pirate hunt sounds like it was fun! Good job!

[Vidar]

46. Brilliant protest.

[LynneSin]

47. And he hijacked the people's choice to represent them in DC

anyone else would have signed that certificate after the 3rd recount actually added votes to Franken's totals. Now Minnesota a state with more people then Delaware, Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska and a few other small states combine has 1 less senator then each of those states.

[onethatcares]

48. avast yee men of the seas

that's the way to corner the scallywags and make them turn tail and show their yellow sides. AAAARGH. and a pint of rum to ya.

[Infinite Hope]

49. Wonderful! I was only a few minutes away...I wish I had known this was planned! n/t

[Bjorn Against]

50. I really wish we could have told more people about it.

We didn't want word to get back to Pawlenty so no one aside from our closest friends knew this was going to be happening. It would have been great to get more boats out there, but to plan something bigger without Pawlenty finding out would have been a challenge.

[Fireweed247]

51. kick

[Bjorn Against]

52. Here is what our captain Mary Jane LaVigne had to say about why she brought us out in her boat

Just before 6 a.m. Saturday morning pirates invaded my house. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was staging a flashy fishing opener just hours after vetoing a nuts and bolts state budget. I offered my White Bear Lake dock and pontoon for the protest. Before I finished making coffee, Ross and Greg had hung banners on the gunwales. Roger stowed his kites while fifth-grader Eric waved around a plastic hook hand and practiced saying “arrrgghh.” Bjoin’s pirate get-up inspired me to don a top hat. By 6:10 a.m. we shoved off.

Anyone lucky enough to own lakeshore property knows what a crock the Governor’s “no new taxes” pledge is. As state aid is cut to cities and schools, our property tax rates have sky-rocketed. Counties, desperate to close the Pawlenty created deficits, are ratcheting up our supposed “market values” even as sales prices are falling. Taxed-out average earners are forced to sell the lakeshore homes they’ve owned for 20, 30 or 40 years. These modest converted cabins are torn down and replaced with McMansions, yet another example of Pawlenty’s strategy of squeezing the middle to feed the fat cats. So, I got sort of steamed out on the lake when a beer bellied bozo in Pawlenty’s entourage shouted at us to “go home.”

Pawlenty’s cuts to bridge maintenance, preventive medical care and higher education, have left us dumber, sicker and with bridges falling down. He spared no expense however for the Republican Convention. Seems the fishing opener is the best excuse he can come up with to reuse all the militaristic paraphernalia. Boats and boats of sheriffs, helicopters buzzing the lake, the Mobile Incident Unit Command Center, it would have been comical if I didn’t know I was paying for it. I’m happy they didn’t dip into their million dollar stockpile of tear gas. It was a display worthy of a vice presidential want-to-be not a self-described fiscally conservative governor of a cash strapped state.

Out on the pirate boat we complied with all the rules, kept it fun and stayed courteous. I even felt a little sorry the guy didn't catch a big one. Anyone who swallowed the hook like Pawlenty did for the McCain ticket this year deserves to land a nice one once in a while.

I’ve lived on White Bear Lake for over a quarter century. I have worked hard for my community. The fishing opener was our big moment. My friends staffed the volunteer ranks that put on Pawlenty’s shindig. It was great to see White Bear’s sweet spirit. My neighbors are remarkably forbearing. They were more than gracious when the Missile Dick Chicks took over my house during the Republican Convention. Yet, activist though I am, I’m still Minnesotan enough to not want to offend. I needn’t have worried. I ran into a key player while out to dinner in a White Bear restaurant on Saturday night. “I was so happy you guys were out there,” he said.

“It didn’t bother you after all the trouble you went to?” I asked.

“Na,” he said. “We spent more than a year organizing this thing, then Pawlenty tells us he’d be heading to Forest Lake if he didn’t catch a fish by noon.”

Every one in town did get a free dinner Friday night. As we stood in line waiting to be handed our plates of beans, it felt a little like a middle class soup kitchen. Given Pawlenty’s short sighted, slight of hand, silly security spendthrift ways, middle class folks like us may find ourselves standing in line for real soon enough. It's time our governor stood on solid ground and worked with the Minnesota Legislature to make smart, forward thinking decisions about our state spending and revenue. That happens away from the photo op.

[Fireweed247]

53. I love this protest!