Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) committed to block House floor proceedings unless House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) inserts the SAVE Act into a must-pass piece of legislation, Punchbowl News reported on Friday.Luna has pressed for the SAVE America Act – a bill that mandates voter ID and citizenship checks while adding new restrictions on mail-in ballots – to be folded into the annual defense policy bill."We should be doing all of the above," Luna told Punchbowl News for its report published Friday. "Why not try? It's crazy."Luna has already disrupted leadership's plans once – she helped defeat a rule that would have inserted SAVE Act language directly into the defense bill, despite House GOP leaders having spent three years working to keep unrelated amendments out of it.Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with inter-party disputes. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Punchbowl that Republicans "need to be very careful" about how they message the standoff, arguing that Democrats – not Republicans – are the ones blocking the SAVE Act's passage.“The message we need to convey to our supporters – it’s not Republicans that are preventing the SAVE America Act from being passed. It’s Democrats,” Johnson told Punchbowl News.
The country's theocracy hopes to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
Everyone knows the song.It’s a warm summer night, the top of the seventh inning has just concluded, and the organ begins to ring throughout the stadium. It’s time to whip out the singing voice for one of America’s most iconic tunes — "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." At a time when baseball fandom was overwhelmingly male-dominated, the character of Katie stands out as an unusual creation for the era.Yet few baseball fans, let alone Americans at large, know the true history behind the 118-year-old symbol of our country’s pastime.To get to the beginning, we must travel back to the time of President Theodore Roosevelt. The year is 1908: The Ford Model T makes its debut in the automobile market; New York City drops the very first New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square; and the Grand Canyon is declared a national monument.The story goes that Jack Norworth was riding a New York subway train when he was inspired by a sign he saw that read, “Baseball Today — Polo Grounds.” Norworth quickly developed the lyrics to the song, with Albert Von Tilzer composing the music.The irony? According to reports, neither of these men had ever been to a baseball game. Norworth did not attend a game until 32 years later in 1940.Norworth and his then-wife Nora Bayes would go on to debut the tune during a vaudeville act at the Amphion Theater in Brooklyn. The song was quickly recorded by multiple different groups, with both the Edward Meeker and the Haydn Quartet versions finding mass success. Although only the chorus is sung at baseball games today, the original song contains multiple verses that tell the story of Katie Casey (later changed to Nelly Kelly by Norworth) — a “baseball mad” fanatic who would rather have her boyfriend take her to the ballgame than to the theater. At a time when women did not even have the right to vote, let alone the fact that baseball fandom was overwhelmingly male-dominated, the character of Katie stands out as an unusual creation for the era.The earliest documented instance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" being played at a baseball game was during a Los Angeles high school game in 1934. The song made its Major League debut later that year during Game 4 of the 1934 World Series.Stadium bands began regularly performing the tune during games in the mid-20th century. However, the way baseball fans engage with the song today — singing it during the seventh-inning stretch — was popularized by Chicago White Sox announcer Harry Caray in the 1970s. Caray later brought the tradition to the Chicago Cubs when he became their announcer in 1982. In 2001, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was ranked #8 on the "Songs of the Century" list, and later in 2010, Edward Meeker's recording was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.So next time you find yourself indulging in America's pastime, remember to buy some "peanuts and Cracker Jack" so that you can "root, root, root for the home team" — but never forget: "For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, at the old ball game."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Republican Party lawmakers, fed up with taking the blame for President Donald Trump's failures, are launching pre-emptive strikes ahead of the upcoming midterm election, according to a new report.In interviews with NBC News, GOP senators and operatives unloaded on the president, saying he's already setting the stage to blame Republicans if the party suffers losses in November. Trump has already latched onto the failure to pass the SAVE America Act as "his weapon of choice," they noted.A Republican senator, speaking anonymously to avoid Trump's wrath, laid it bare: if Republicans lose seats in November, Trump "will blame it on us and the fact that we didn't pass the SAVE Act, and nobody will believe it but him."For Trump, "everything is a zero-sum game," the lawmaker told NBC. "He likes to dominate people, and he's a bully, and he's f------ things up as fast as he can, and there's nothing anyone can do about it."Resentment is festering across Republican circles over Trump's quixotic fixation on rewriting the nation's election laws—a bill that GOP operatives view as "strategically misguided." A longtime Republican operative advising key Senate races bluntly observed that the president "blames Republicans for most of his problems. I'm sure he will try to blame the Senate."The operative added that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), "cannot manufacture votes," and that Trump has himself to blame for for alienating outgoing Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The operative argued those lawmakers have no longer have any incentive to bow to Trump's demands. "They will vote their conscience and not for Trump's wishes," the operative said. "Trump’s fixation on the voting bill baffles some Republican strategists, who believe his focus is misplaced," NBC News reported. "A savvier approach to the midterms would be for him to sign and celebrate measures aimed at reducing costs and making daily life more affordable for American families, such as the housing bill."“Poll after poll shows affordability is the top issue, and he’s got signature legislation on his desk that he won’t sign,” one strategist complained. "So that tells you where his head is on the midterms."
The Senate voted for and against ending the war with Iran on two consecutive days, with President Trump lashing out at four GOP senators who had voted for a resolution barring any future U.S. military activities against Iran, and the administration arguing that the resolution is unconstitutional.
This week's Supreme Court ruling giving President Donald Trump a free hand in firing government regulators is less about Trump than it is about President Woodrow Wilson.
