It seems as if the First and Second Ammendments are quickly going out of style in America. They haven't been repealed yet, but they're both starting to look like the "undead"--pasty grey in color, sloughing flesh in chuncks, and having wounds that neither heal nor bleed.

As for Mr. Handel's supposed insensitivity, at least he didn't round up a hundred of his closest friends for a party in the streets, over the Hajj incident.

Posted by: Abscedere at February 9, 2006 9:03 AM

When this first was reported, I sent emails to KFI encouraging them to resist CAIR. I received multiple replies to the email, from many different employees of KFI. The email obviously got passed around, and the staff showed no signs of submitting. The weak link was not the local station, it was the connection to the national chain, Clear Channel, and CAIR didn't have to do much in Los Angeles to twist KFI's ear, it had only to put its network of lobbyists to work in Washington, DC. A threat of some new regulation, or a hint of yet another FCC investigation, that would be all it took for timid corporate bottom-liners to start sweating and leaning heavy on KFI.

This was my original email to KFI:

I read that CAIR is demanding an apology for on-air
jokes made about the recent Hajj disaster
(http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18973_CAIR_Goes_After_Handel&only)

This email is to support KFI and ClearChannel in
resisting the attempt by CAIR to muzzle free speech.
2.5 million people jamming themselves into Mecca once
a year, despite repeated mass deaths caused by gross
lack of self-discipline, is a spectacle worthy of
ridicule, and in and of itself is not disrespectful of
Islam, despite whatever CAIR may say.

CAIR, for that matter, has had three of its most
senior members imprisoned for activities supporting
Islamic terrorism, and has one of its stated
objectives the "Islamization" of the United States.
At most, they can threaten an entirely ineffective
boycott by people who, according to their own
religious tenets, do not listen to the radio or watch
TV. At their best, they are not a force to be
reckoned with. At their worst, they are determined to
deprive Americans of their hard-won freedoms.

And here is one of the replies from KFI:

Thank you so much for your support of KFI AM 640 More Stimulating Talk
Radio! I am very happy to hear that you stand by Bill Handel and his
comments. We here at KFI are strong believers in freedom of speech,
and
think that our hosts should have the ability to express themselves!

Posted by: longtime lurker at February 9, 2006 9:38 AM

Who knows what death threats were issued against them and their families? Muslims have been doing this for centuries.

Posted by: Silvester at February 9, 2006 10:10 AM

Death threats weren't necessary. Look who groveled, not the station nor its employees. It was Clear Channel Communications. CAIR took a little time to find the right button to push, and then they jabbed it. Voila! Instant dhimmi.

Posted by: longtime lurker at February 9, 2006 10:28 AM

You can contact Bill Handel and KFI Radio yourself with your observations at their website:

http://www.kfi640.com

Posted by: worldtour at February 9, 2006 11:55 AM

Is that guys name really "ASHLOCK?"

Nomen est omen...

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at February 9, 2006 12:42 PM

I apologise to all you murdering, lying, camel herding muslims from the bottom of my feet.

Posted by: JanuaryMan at February 9, 2006 12:56 PM

Don't tell me that there are dimmies in the US too, who cave into the thuggery of Muslims.Europe is already full of them. Where do the apologists hope to draw the line? When sharia is enacted? When do we see a united stand against this onslaught to the freedoms that the forefathers died trying to protect? When will people come forward and call a spade a spade without all this political correctness. If Muslims cannot take the heat they should all leave and go back to where they came from.

Posted by: faqi at February 9, 2006 3:12 PM

This may be the first time I've ever disagreed with a line taken by Dhimmi Watch, but it seems to me that joking about hundreds of people dying horribly is pretty stupid, and would warrant an apology.

If al Jazeera joked about hundreds of Americans dying in whatever circumstance, it would be considered evidence of their barbarism.

I believe this apology is an indication of civility rather than spinelessness.

Posted by: Darrell at February 9, 2006 6:31 PM

Here is the responce that I got from the Executive Producer Michelle Kube of the Bill Handel this afternoon after I sent her the article from Dhimmiwatch.---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your note. I want to be really clear on something...

Here's exactly what Handel said at 6:58am on Wednesday morning 2/8/06

"Ok, before we get out of here, a quick word in reference to the controversy on our Hajj parody. Remember when we did that on January 12th? And we get emails from all over the world, where people are offended and go crazy. I don’t pay attention to those. The ones I do pay attention to are from people who actually listen to this program, real listeners. And one of the recurring themes that I got, and always get is that most people get our sense of humor. They get that we offend everyone, that this is not hate speech, it is parody, it is humor. Sometimes though, I’m accused of having bad timing. And a local Muslim listener made a point that I have to bring to you because it makes a lot of sense. You know, when I defend myself and say that I make fun of the Holocaust, which I do, the Muslim listeners said that you wouldn’t make fun if thousands of Jews were gassed yesterday. You wouldn’t make fun of the Holocaust. And you know what, that’s absolutely true. That’s absolutely true. So in reference to that, the day we made the speech, the Hajj parody, the wound was very fresh for a lot of Muslims. And the comments were out of line, and for that, I am sorry."

I want to be clear...Handel did not apologize to CAIR, the station apologized to CAIR. Handel apologized to his Muslim listeners. Handel has made his feelings about CAIR very clear and those have not changed. CAIR's press release did not include all of BIll's comments which is why I wanted to make sure you saw the whole thing.

Thanks for your support of Bill Handel and KFI AM 640, More Stimulating Talk Radio. While I understand your frustration I hope you know that Bill would never have said anything he is not comfortable with. You can count on Bill for his continued honest, irreverent, and stimulating approach to the crazy world we live in.

While this may not change your mind, I just had to respond to let you know what happened.

Thanks again.

Michelle Kube
Executive Producer, The Bill Handel Show
KFI-AM 640
818 566 6425

Posted by: Mackie at February 9, 2006 9:45 PM

Robert, CAIR probably used the same tactic as they used against NRO to get the offending book off their reading list--they threatened to bother the radio stations advertising sponsors.

Posted by: markjames at February 9, 2006 9:45 PM

Shouldn't Saudi Arabia have been the one to apologize for allowing these yearly stampedes that kill hundreds and hundreds of Muslim pilgrims year after year after year?

Making fun of their insane incompetence would have been more to the point, and it sounds like Handel aimed for the easy target -the trampled hapless schmucks- and not the real culprit- the crooked Meccan authorities, so he may have been guilty of a cheap shot. A poorly targeted barb.

Should that be apologized for?

That's up to him.

But his "bad taste" had nothing to do with Islam, per se, as far as I can judge from the reporting. Only with a Muslim government's incompetence in managing predictable crowd control, and with the repetitiously hysterical idiots who can't keep order among themselves, even after seeing the same avoidable disaster go on time after time after time in Mecca.

You can call the Saudi's criminally negligent.

You can call the people on the hadj moronic sheep.

That they die so needlessly and passively is a testament to the deadening fatalism that their culture and faith instill in them.

And that needs mocking.

Posted by: profitsbeard at February 9, 2006 10:39 PM

JanaryMan sez: "I apologise to all you murdering, lying, camel herding muslims from the bottom of my feet."

Damn! That's so good, all I can say is Me Too!

Posted by: texan at February 9, 2006 11:14 PM

My initial reaction was one of disgust. But after going through Michelle Kube's response above, I agree that Bill Handel didn't back down. He is welcome to apologize to his Mohammedan audience (although I would rather that he didn't).

As for ClearChannel, their apology is meaningless, since they weren't the ones who committed the offence in the first place. It is the equivalence of a random White man apologizing to a random Black man for slavery. It would be like me saying to Robert, "Robert, I am angered by everything that CAIR has said about you to date, and for that, I apologize"

Would Robert, or anyone else, fall for that?

Posted by: Infidel Pride at February 10, 2006 3:01 AM

I'm not surprised. I listen to Handel all the time, he has made it his mission in life to offend as many people as possible, but which group forces him to apologize? Muslims don't care about anything else he's said, just so long their precious sensibilities aren't offended.

I have officially lost faith in mankind. If Handel is forced to self-censor, we're not far behind.

Posted by: JadeDragoness at February 11, 2006 12:19 AM