Oink oink! Crowdsourcing government earmark requests

A new project hopes to use volunteer labor to compile a list of all Congressionally requested "earmarks" into a central database. Get ready to slice, dice, sort, and map earmark requests online. "People are desperate for fruitcake these days," says The Cato Institute's Jim Harper when explaining why he's giving one away as a prize in his crowdsourced earmark-exposure contest. Behind the fruitcake lies a serious purpose: crowdsource the compilation of all federal legislators' "earmark" requests, those specific funding requests to dole out money directly to (hopefully) deserving entities in the legislator's home district. To Learn More Click Here Oink Oink