A broad-based web-driven networked journalism effort to shed some light on the porky world of Congressional appropriations.

Writing for the Sunlight Foundation, Zephyr Teachout says that one bill alone includes "over 1,800 appropriations that have never been publicly debated -- and probably never will be -- and we don't even know where they came from.

"An earmark is a line-item that is inserted into a bill to direct funds to a specific project or recipient without any public hearing or review."