A group of organizations from the political left and right, including a media company, has launched a highly worthwhile project to expose the origin of earmarks — little (and not so little) spending items in legislation designed as a special favor to a district, campaign contributor and/or politician.
The idea is that the public will do the digging into over 1,800 such gifts and put them into a database. Some far-flung folks, politically, are involved. Notably, so are the Examiner newspapers.
Fantastic idea, and it could work to shame Congress people into at least telling the truth about their special favors, if not reconsider the public interest in all this.
on Aug 15th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Sir Thomas More: Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world… but for Wales?
[and that’s as much I as I think I can safely say 🙁 🙁 :-(]
on Aug 15th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
[…] I’ve been excited by anyone by the efforts of both NZ Bear’s Porkbusters and the Sunlight Foundation to root out government waste. Plenty of web luminaries are chatting up today’s rollout of the Exposing Earmarks project; I found Jay Rosen’s summary of the movement (which includes Josh Marshall and Glenn Reynolds) particularly helpful. I set aside some time to play around with the G maps mash-up of HHS appropriations earmarks, starting with two my two most recent homes, Chicago and Philadelphia. Living in Chicago, where some official or other always seems to be on trial or under investigation, I have no lack of enthusiasm for identifying waste. Despite this skepticism, Chicago’s cut of the federal pie seems pretty legit: funding for hospitals, housing assistance for homeless families, and education. The map for Philly lists a couple of projects that raise questions, but overall, I can’t complain about well regarded workforce training programs and health care. So, pork pickings are slim in two of the cities with with worst reputations for waste. Coincidence– or is there less pork than was feared? […]
on Aug 16th, 2006 at 4:05 am
[…] Er is al veel over te doen: lees maar bij Pressthink, Citizen Media, PJNet en de editorial van de deelnemende Examiner. […]