Kiss-of-Death Muchnick--Part Two

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning the 2013 World Series.

Congratulations to poor, dumb Irvin Muchnick for finding yet another area where he's completely wrong.  Muchnick waited until the series was tied 2-2 to jump in with his keen insight.

The failed writer picked the St. Louis Cardinals to win in seven games and predicted this about pivotal Game 5:

"GAME 5, tonight: Adam Wainwright bounces back from his horror show in the opener and outpitches Jon Lester this time. I even expect a breakout offensive performance from the Cardinals’ bats, which so far have been silenced by better and grittier pitching than they faced across 162 regular-season games and the first two rounds of the playoffs."

Of course, we all saw what happened:  Lester pitched another masterful game, St. Louis scored one run, and the Sox went up 3-2.

Proof of Muchnick's Irrelevance

Failed writer Irvin Muchnick has devoted dozens of posts to Representative George Miller's inquiry into USA Swimming "scandals."  Just out of curiosity, we visited Miller's website to check on this so-called investigation.  Turns out, Muchnick's histrionics are just that--bluster.

Here is a summary of the Congressman's priorities:

Rep. Miller has worked throughout his congressional career on behalf of children and the middle class. His priorities have included providing safe, affordable health care for all people, ensuring every child has access to a quality education, standing up against discrimination, and creating jobs and enhancing economic security for middle class Americans. He continues these efforts as a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Labor and Working Families Caucus, the International Workers Right Caucus, the Congressional Steel Caucus, the Congressional Native American Caucus, and the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. He also sits on the Bicameral Congressional Caucus on Parkinson’s Disease , the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, and the Congressional Mental Health Caucus.
In addition to his focus on strengthening and growing America’s middle class, Congressman George Miller is driven by a passion for the outdoors and the environment, as evidenced by his past chairmanship of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Congressman Miller is an advocate and leader for fish and wildlife protection and conservation, ensuring responsible stewardship of our lands and waters, and developing clean energy technologies. He has worked towards these goals as a member of the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus, the House International Conservation Caucus, the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, the House Oceans Caucus, the Congressional National Parks Caucus, the Boating Caucus, the Trails Caucus, the House Recycling Caucus, the House Organic Caucus and the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus.


And even in more detail:

Gun Control
America has an unacceptably high rate of gun violence. George believes there are several aspects of our nation's gun laws that need close scrutiny and reform. He knows there are reasonable steps that Congress can take to keep deadly weapons and ammunition out of the hands of those who would misuse them and harm innocent victims and law enforcement officers. For example, he supports legislation to close the ‘gun show’ loophole by requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers. He supports the prohibition of large capacity ammunition clips like the ones used in Arizona when Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot. And he supports requiring child safety locks or storage containers for handguns and tough trigger lock standards to keep children safe.

Campaign Finance

Congressman Miller has a long track record of fighting to reduce the influence of money in our political process.  He is a long-time supporter of publicly financed elections, and he was an early and ardent supporter of a ban on unregulated "soft money" donations to national parties in the 1990’s, as well as a strong proponent of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform that was enacted in 2002.
More recently, Congressman Miller believes the Citizens United decision is one of the most damaging by a Supreme Court in decades because it has unleashed a flood of new special interest money in politics. In response, he cosponsored H.J.RES.90 in the 112^th congress -- Rep. Ted Deutch’s constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and ban corporate spending in our elections, and plans to support that bill again when it is introduced this Congress. The amendment makes clear that corporations are not people but private entities prohibited from using their general treasury funds to influence voters. The resolution also restores legislators’ authority to limit and require disclosure of all political spending by individuals, unions, nonprofits, wealthy self-funded candidates, and all other sources.
George is also co-sponsoring bills by Reps. David Price, John Sarbanes and John Yarmuth to provide for public financing to get big money out of politics, as well as the DISCLOSE Act, offered by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, which would require special interests to disclose the names of contributors who give more than $10,000 for use in political campaigns.

LGBT Community

George believes that same-sex couples should be able to be married and that the government should not interfere in the personal relationships between two loving and consenting adults. He spoke out in favor of President Obama’s support of equal rights for gay marriage. He supports repealing the decades-old discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to ensure that the federal government recognizes all marriages – including same-sex marriages performed in the states that currently allow for it.
In addition, George is supportive of additional legislation important to LGBT families, including supporting and moving the Employment Non-Discrimination Act through his Education and Workforce committee, co-sponsoring legislation that would ensure that same sex partners have access to their partner’s health benefits in the same way married couples do, and legislation that would prohibit discrimination against adoptive parents.

Pro-Choice / Abortion

George is sensitive to the many different and strongly held views on abortion. His view is that abortion should remain safe and legal so that a woman and her doctor can make the right decision about whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. George has always believed that at the same we must do everything we can to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies. Restricting access to safe and legal abortion could endanger the lives of women who might be forced to seek an unsafe procedure.

Immigration Reform

George believes that our county must pass comprehensive immigration reform. Comprehensive reform means that workers would be protected, businesses would have greater certainty, families could be reunited, and a path to citizenship could be created. He supports President Obama’s call for a bipartisan effort to fix our immigration system, but understands that obstructionist Washington politics make reform a tough reality at this time. He knows that Band-aid solutions can't address the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently here, the enormous backlogs in our legal immigration system.
George is a strong supporter of the Federal DREAM Act to allow immigrants who were brought here as children through no fault of their own to earn a path to citizenship. He voted for the Act when it passed a Democratic-held house in 2010, but the bill was blocked by Senate Republicans. George is supportive of President Obama’s historic announcement on June 15 to allow DREAMer students to apply for “deferred action” and has held workshops to help the nearly 3,500 students in his district who are eligible for deferred status. Read more about George’s work for DREAMers.

Legalization of Marijuana

George has a history of supporting some efforts to eliminate federal penalties for responsible marijuana use. George believes that we can no longer afford to spend money on an ineffective drug enforcement strategy of criminalizing responsible personal adult marijuana use that the public no longer supports and which consumes law enforcement's limited resources and time. He is a long-time supporter of legislation by Rep. Barney Frank to eliminate a federal prohibition on federal financial aide for any person with a drug conviction, believing it is against our interests to deny an education to young people who want to improve their lives and participate on our economy.


The rest of the information concerns recent issues and the welfare of his constituents.  NOWHERE ON HIS WEBSITE IS THERE EVEN THE BRIEFEST MENTION OF A SWIMMING SCANDAL.  We've already gone into great detail in previous posts as to Muchnick's lack of credibility, but if this doesn't convince you of the failed writer's total irrelevance, nothing will.

And The Band Played On

"I am the father of two sons and two daughters with child-rearing costs. The main benefit to me of an improved settlement in this case is that my dear wife of 20 years might stop reminding me of what a worthless piece of garbage I am."

        -- Irvin Muchnick Declaration 2006


The charade goes on.  Another deadline (October 15) has passed and no revised settlement.  According to failed writer Irvin Muchnick's attorney there are now "document revision" issues and--surprise, surprise--a publisher still needs to sign off.

If this thing ever does get signed, which I seriously doubt, maybe the writers in the class will finally get to question Muchnick about what happened to the vast riches ($600 million to $2.6 billion) the failed writer said the settlement was worth when he objected eight years ago. 

Wonder if these guys sit in a back room somewhere coming up with ideas for the next delay...and the one after that...and the one after that.

Muchnick Takes Old Story And Runs With It

Want to know what kind of "journalist" Irvin Muchnick is?  The failed writer has spent the better part of the last two years chasing down a story whose expiration date has long expired.

Here are the facts.  Longtime USA Swimming coach Everett Uchiyama was forced out of his job IN 2006 following sexual abuse allegations.  Uchiyama then got a job in a similar capacity at a Colorado country club.  In 2010, USA Swimming released a list of their former employees who had been banned.  Uchiyama was on that list and was subsequently fired from the country club.

ALL THESE FACTS WERE FULLY CHRONICLED IN MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS THOUGHOUT THE COUNTRY IN 2010.

With his last hope of a Congressional investigation fading into the sunset, Muchnick is grabbing hold of any life raft he can, even if it means drudging up a years-old story.  He's now quoting Uchiyama's victim, as if this is current news.

The idiot wrote an excited blog on someone else's website October 17 about this "scoop."  He is totally mystified as to why the mainstream (legitimate) media isn't picking up on the story.  Duh Irvin, the real media is only interested in CURRENT EVENTS.

His writings are always good for a chuckle, though.  He now claims to have "Capital Hill sources" that are informing him Congressman George Miller's investigation into USA Swimming is being pursued "vigorously."  Then he claimed, presumably with a straight face, that TWO FBI offices are on the hunt.  Our best guess is that Muchnick's Capital Hill sources are mensroom attendants.

This is the kind of stuff that has resulted in failed writer Muchnick being shunned by everyone in the legitimate media.  USA Swimming said it best when they tabbed Muchnick as a "personal blogger."

By the way, New York writer Phil Mushnick was recently lambasted as irrelevant by Deadspin.com and Keith Olbermann.  The connection?  Mushnick (no relation to the failed writer) gave a hearty endorsement to both of Muchnick's books.

Kiss-of-Death Muchnick Strikes Again

"I am the father of two sons and two daughters with child-rearing costs. The main benefit to me of an improved settlement in this case is that my dear wife of 20 years might stop reminding me of what a worthless piece of garbage I am."

        -- Irvin Muchnick Declaration 2006


California Governor Jerry Brown Saturday vetoed a bill extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases.  Once again failed writer Irvin Muchnick is left with his tail between his legs.

Doesn't this guy ever get tired of being wrong?  I feel sorry for all people legitimately trying to battle sexual abuse.  The last thing you want is someone on your side who was sued for defamation by a 17-year-old.

Muchnick is the latter-day Hamilton Burger, the embattled District Attorney who lost every case he tried against Perry Mason.

Remedial Civics Lesson for Muchnick

 "I am the father of two sons and two daughters with child-rearing costs. The main benefit to me of an improved settlement in this case is that my dear wife of 20 years might stop reminding me of what a worthless piece of garbage I am."

        -- Irvin Muchnick Declaration 2006

Irvin Muchnick is still in a delirium about Congressman George Miller's "investigation" of U S A Swimming.

Somebody should inform the failed writer that Mr. Miller is a DEMOCRAT.  Anyone with a sixth grade education knows that the minority party in the House of Representatives has little, if any power.  They aren't even allowed chairmanships of committees.  They certainly are not capable of calling for a Congressional investigation.

Miller's inquiry is simply busy work.  Another swing and a miss for Muchnick.