My internship in DC has ended and I’ll be back in America’s Dairyland by the end of the week.  But first, I’ve got to pack and attend ballgames in Baltimore, DC, and Cleveland.  It’ll be a busy week, but I hope to begin some regular posting when I get back on exciting topics like campaign finance reform, the proposed amendment to ban same-sex marriage and any-combination-sex civil unions in WI, the referendum to bring back the death penalty in WI, the WI Governor’s race, and Brewers Baseball.

In my previous post, I wrote that Vice President Cheney criticized Sen. Feingold’s resolution to censure the president, saying that, “The American people already made their decision… They agree with the president.”

Note that the VP doesn’t mention the airtight legality of the program, but what he believes to be the popular opinion of the American public. Following popular opinion would also have us believe that Dancing with the Stars is quality television.

But, if you want to play the popular opinion game, bring it.

Americans actually favor Feingold’s censure of President Bush 46% to 44%, according to a poll by the American Research Group.*

Apparently, someone is wrong here.

*Be sure to observe, however, that the margin of error for the poll is 3%, meaning that the true numbers could be anywhere within three percent of the reported percentages. So, statistically speaking, it’s about half of Americans.

My report on the annual March for Life anti-abortion demonstration (and acknowledgement for my reporting, thanks Teddy) was included the ABC News AfterNote podcast today (fast-forward to 2:00). You can listen to the AfterNote like any .mp3 file.

The event was huge; thousands of people were crowding the Mall. At points, it was almost impossible to move. People came from around the country, some driving through the night to attend the event. Several U.S. Representatives were present and President Bush addressed those in attendance via a phone call from Manhattan, KS where he was giving a speech today.

Speakers at the event made an effort to connect the march and the anniversary of Roe v. Wade to Bush’s new appointments to the Supreme Court: John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Some of the most prominent cheers of the event were for the resignation of Sandra Day O’Conner and the appointments of Roberts and Alito.

Pictures from the March for Life

ABC News Political Unit: The AfterNote

ABC News: Demonstrators mark Roe v. Wade Anniversary

I’ve taken the last couple weeks off from posting, using my time to prepare for the semester… and sleep. On Thursday, I left Milwaukee for Washington DC, where I will be interning for the ABC News Political Unit until May.

I’m not exactly sure what that means for The New Vernacular. I may be writing about politics more, with an emphasis on the national arena, or I may take a step back from political writing altogether and focus on technology and media. Or, I may not feel like writing much here after writing at work all day. One thing is for certain, because I’m working for a news organization, I’ll be refraining from promoting any specific candidates or agendas and stick to a more objective analysis.

I start work tomorrow, hopefully I’ll get a chance to update later in the week.

Break out the goofy hats and confetti, The New Vernacular is one year old today! I started out with a little dinky blog on Blogger (a service I highly recommend to anyone wanting to start a blog) and wasted countless hours messing around with html code and templates, searching endlessly for a three-column layout that would suit my needs. I finally broke down in September, purchased some web space, and started thenewvernacular.com using WordPress (a service I highly recommend for anyone looking to blog more than a couple times a month). Considering the success and fun I’ve had writing here, it looks like I’ll be continuing for the forseeable future.

Here’s a look back at the best of TNV from the past 12 months:

The Bush Administration’s plan for fighting terrorists: superheroes

Dear UW Athletic Department…

Eliminate Chapter 220? Bad idea

How is Milwaukee’s school voucher experiment working out?

Bruno’s web site

Blogs and RSS - FAQ

A “Student Bill of Rights”?

What’s up with the gas tax holiday?

Coasties vs. Sconnies: The Reckoning

Debate over Bible study by RA’s at UW - Eau Claire

Remember when The New Vernacular won MKEonline.com’s Blog of the Week contest back in October? Well, I’m now in the semi-finals for Blog of the Year and I need all the help I can get. Luckily I’m not up against Xoff or Folkbum.

Vote now at MKEonline

update: One of the other blogs I’m up against, Haverchuk, called me a sarcastic dude. It’s true. His blog is mostly about food… I’m definitely a fan.

update: I didn’t win, but Know what I mean? did.

Apparently, I’m one of the “Top Ten Sources for College Bloggers” according to toptensources.com. Each day, editors on the site come up with a new “top ten” list of blogs related to a single topic.

According to the “About” section:

Our editors are constantly reviewing past work to keep it up-to-date. We swap sources in and out, as one voice tapers off and other emerges. The scene is dynamic. We are engaged in an iterative process. Our goal is at all times to present the freshest, most compelling content on the web in an easy-to-access, fun, imaginative context.

Seems like a pretty neat concept (I defend my use of “neat” here… meaning cute and novel, but not necessarily cool). Other recent topics have included blogging journalists (a pretty good list, actually), purses, and Tom Cruise. It looks like I’m in pretty good company.

After a week-long campaign, The New Vernacular emerged as the winner of MKEonline.com’s Blog of the Week contest! Thanks to everyone who voted.

The New Vernacular has been entered in the Blog of the Week contest over at mkeonline.com. The contest pits blogs from Southeastern Wisconsin against each other to see who’s got the top blog.

Vote for The New Vernacular

Voting is open from October 13th through October 19th.