I’m not sure where this ranks compared to “We are aware of all Internet traditions,” but I’m going to go out on a limb and state that some clown named Mike Lester telling August Pollak that “We are also in possession of previous blog entries” is one of the silliest threats I’ve ever heard.
I, too, am in possession of previous blog entries from Pollak:
Those weren’t easy to find. They were cleverly hidden behind the “BLOG ARCHIVE” button prominently located on his main page.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
I am grateful to you for your fearless intrepidness, and your intrepid fearlessness, in pursuing this matter.
Dork
No context, no background, no reason why I should care who these clowns are? You actually expect me to click the link when it’s your job to tell me everything?
Weak sauce, Cole.
General Stuck
Shit, peeps suing each other over internet jabber, where would it end? Half the internet suing the other half and vice versa.
Luckily, General Stuck is not listed in the phonebook, so bring it on mofos/
August J. Pollak
My previous blog entries?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
General Stuck
Can I sue corner stone for being an idiot?
AxelFoley
All your base…you know the rest.
AxelFoley
@General Stuck:
It is your duty to do so, General.
whiskey
mike lester beats his wife:
http://romenews-tribune.com/pages/full_story/push?article-RN-T+cartoonist+arrested%20&id=3236333-RN-T+cartoonist+arrested
hope this helps!
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
(Oh shit. I think I just thanked you again.)
Carnacki
Mike Lester appears to believe the right of free speech applies only to him and his newspaper. With his ludicrously poor attempt at intimidation of August Pollak, it is safe to call Lester one of the dumbest fucks on the Internet because truth is the best defense to accusations of libel and slander and Lester provides evidence of his dumb fuckness himself.
GambitRF
Click through to see Lester’s actual cartoon. Apparently Obama saying that Muslims have made “extraordinary contributions to America” deserves ridicule. Wingnuts are really weird.
Martin
@General Stuck: I’m sure there is some tautological prohibition against doing so, like suing that the sky is blue or that water is wet.
Mark S.
@whiskey:
I don’t know who the fuck Mike Lester is, but his fans in the comments there are a bunch of assholes.
Tlazolteotl
@whiskey:
Now now, unless we know he was convicted, that story makes him an alleged wifebeater. ;-)
You wouldn’t want him to sue you or anything.
patrick II
I see Mike Lester has joined the Sarah Palin “the first amendments stops when they’re talking about me” club.
Camchuck
It’s possible that Mike Lester is taking posession of this blog entry and monitoring these comments …
… in which case, let me say, Mike Lester is a fucking idiot. And a bigot.
Clark
I don’t understand why people threaten to sue bloggers for mocking them. A candidate for office once threatened to sue me, going so far as to retain a lawyer who sent me silly e-mails. Naturally, I just mocked her even more.
Corner Stone
@August J. Pollak: And if you look over here?
That’s right, I’ve got your nose! I’ve got your nose and I’m not gonna give it back.
Bulworth
“We are also in possession of previous blog entries”
That’s gold, Jerry. Gold!
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Clark: I once discovered that a Holocaust denier had posted one of my commentaries about Israel/Palestine on his site — sort of as proof of his heinous claims about something or other — and it about did my head in that there was nothing I could do about it. The Chicago Tribune and I tried, threatening lawyers and whatnot, but as you say: It was pointless, and we knew it.
Marc
Yes, it’s very important to note that cartoonist Mike Lester was jailed on misdemeanor charges of spousal battery (a.k.a. wife-beating) according to press reports. Granted, it would be so wrong to have these two things become a common Google association, what with them being true and all…
TR
For someone who makes his living through constitutionally-protected free speech, Mike Lester doesn’t seem to have much of a grasp on libel law in this country.
Or much of a grasp on reality, either.
Cat
@whiskey:
The comment section on that story makes me ill. It doesn’t take more then a half dozen responses till you get to the she deserved it or brought it on herself.
Carnacki
How much do you want to bet Mike Lester is one of those right wingers who often wails about “frivolous lawsuits?”
Jeff
Do I smell a new category? “We are in possession of all previous blog entries…”
lawnorder
He’s done goofed. The consequences will never be the same!
:p
BGinCHI
@whiskey:
Plus his middle name is Eugene!!
jibeaux
All your previous blogs are belong to us.
Tom Hilton
@whiskey: Made the mistake of reading some of the comments there; got as far as “women shouldn’t provoke men with aggression”, and now I have to burn my computer.
(Twice, actually. I still have to burn it after mistakenly poking through Mike Lester’s archives and running across the one with the classroom full of Crazy! Stupid! Probably Criminal! African-American sounding names.)
Sir Heh Indeedy
Mike Lester is a pretty crummy artist. Jes sayin.
handy
@Cat:
I got to “this wasn’t a violent attack because Mrs. Ragan (sp?) has a drinking problem” and I figured that was enough for me.
arguingwithsignposts
@handy: @Tom Hilton:
There are some boats you just shouldn’t get out of. Most newspaper comment sections, sadly, are exactly those boats.
Bobby Thomson
Shorter Rome News Tribune comment section: -Friends don’t let friends drive drunk- Responsible husbands shove their wives through plate glass to keep them from driving drunk.
parksideq
@Jeff: I was thinking “new tagline in the masthead”, myself.
BenA
@Cat:
I’m convinced the absolute worst human beings in the world comment on local newspapers. The most god awful stuff on the internet.
Bullsmith
There’s a truism I buy that very funny people often have a pretty dark side. But it’s the people who thinkthey’re funny that you really have to watch out for.
Scott
Someone tell Mike Lester that I showed his cartoon around and called him a “bigoted douche.”
I’m pretty sure I’d be able to prove to a jury that he’s both a bigot and a douche.
James E. Powell
I am not familiar with the history or meaning of the phrase “We are aware of all Internet traditions.” Can anyone help me out?
Mark S.
@James E. Powell:
Here ya go.
D0n Camillo
A wife beating editorial cartoonist threatening to sue a blogger for libel. How the fuck does the editorial team at the Onion keep up?
arguingwithsignposts
@James E. Powell:
And now, you are aware of all internet traditions ™.
anonymous
Clearly, Mike Lester is aware of all internet traditions.
Batocchio
This story’s bizarre. I did a feature called Right-Wing Cartoon Watch for about 2.5 years, and Lester was one of the most far right cartoonists I covered. But he also sent me an e-mail saying he was honored (to be mocked/decried) – it was over one of his far right anti-abortion rights cartoons. Maybe he just felt that it was mission accomplished, pissing off liberals. But I wrote him back to thank him for being a good sport, our political differences notwithstanding. The “aggrieved conservative white guy” has always been a key part of his repertoire, but maybe he’s also gone further right since I was following him regularly. I hadn’t heard about the domestic assault story before now, and like others have said, that comments thread is repulsive.
Nethead Jay
@handy: Funny, that’s the the same place where I thought, to hell with it, not worth the aggravation.
@Tom Hilton: Misogynism and racism, two things that go great together! But then that’s a big part of wingnuttia in a nutshell.
kth
@BGinCHI: funny, I was sure his middle name was Mo.
dms
@whiskey:
I must say, to his credit, he’s a rather young-looking 54-year-old…and I say that being two years older than he.
ColeDBiers
We are also in possession of previous blog entries
And if you ever want to see those blog entries alive again, leave 2 cases of pabst blue ribbon on ice in an unmarked styrofoam cooler next to the upside down milk crates behind the bowling alley at 9pm tonite.
asiangrrlMN
Libel means to say something untrue. I read the entry in question–nothing Pollak says is untrue. Mike Lester is a fucking idiot and a shitty drawer as well–and, like most rightwingers, not in the least bit funny. Add me to your list, Mikey.
asiangrrlMN
Libel means to write something untrue. I read the entry in question–nothing Pollak wrote is untrue. Mike Lester is a fucking idiot and a shitty drawer as well–and, like most rightwingers, not in the least bit funny. Add me to your list, Mikey.
James E. Powell
@Mark S.:
Thank you. I always wondered what that meant.
I am sure there are still internet traditions that I do not know and even more that I do not understand.
Joe Bauers
Went over and checked Mike Lester’s website. There’s five minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
Imagine one of the stupider things a teatard would consider to be worthy of putting on a bumper sticker, and slap it on a drawing. Now you’re familiar with his entire body of work.
thefncrow
If you really don’t know who Mike Lester is, man, I envy you.
I used to try to keep up with right-wing political cartoons, mostly because they usually go beyond just espousing vile and awful ideas into being really awful cartoons, and they’re sort of funny in the same way that you watch shitty movies to mock them endlessly. But that shit seems to get stuck inside your head and just make you more angry and/or depressed all the time, and it’s just really not worth it.
At least until you feel like mocking some things and get it in your head that it’s time to check it out again. Kinda like reading awful right-wing blogs, but with the addition of really awful artwork.
Cris
I’ll extend Lester a tiny bit of credit: when he says “I’m in ur bl0g archives” I think he really means to say that he has downloaded copies of the archives to his own local storage, so it won’t do Pollak any good to go back and change or erase them.
To which I say, whatever. I’ve read Xoverboard for years and I know Pollak is not the kind of guy who is going to try to rewrite his own history.
Zuzu's Petals
@James E. Powell:
Right. For instance, I’m not quite sure where the not getting out of the boat thing came from. Something to do with mangos, I think…
John Bird
I’d say this has “I am aware of all Internet traditions” beat, hands down.
“I am aware. . .” was some nobody right-wing commenter trying to make a nitpicky point about blockquoting and put his foot in his mouth. It’s pretty great but it’s not signed, so it’s not quite as pathetic.
“We are in possession of all previous blog posts” is part of an attempted legal threat by noted non-lawyer and domestic violence arrestee Mike Lester against someone for talking about him on the Internet.
Specifically, it’s the part where Lester ominously informs the blogger that he has access to archived web pages that are available easily to anyone, online, for free, and will be for years.
The second one is definitely funnier.
John Bird
@Cris:
Yeah, but that doesn’t even matter, because there’s independent sites with crawlers that archive those pages as they appear. Pollak could go back and change every single one of his posts to an animation of Mike Lester putting his wife through a plate glass window and still, we’d all “be in possession of previous blog entries”.
That “possession” is what really slays me; I imagine Lester frantically organizing a box full of 3.5″ floppies marked “SENSITIVE MATERIAL – DO NOT ERASE!”
kommrade reproductive vigor
Somewhere in my adventures in the internons I came across the phrase “We have evidence right here of your hacking.” (or something like that.) The person didn’t understand how computers worked, so it was lame and dumb.
@asiangrrlMN: Untrue, harmful, credible and (if memory serves) distributed widely enough to credibly cause harm.