A coalition is asking citizens to research the 1,800+ “earmarks” in the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. “Earmarks” are special grants aimed at particular groups. They’re a species of pork, and they’ve tripled over the past ten years.

The diverse coalition, which includes the Sunlight Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste, Porkbusters.com, Human Events Online (Pat Buchanan’s outfit), and Examiner.com, will maintain a single database that they will expose in their own ways. For example, you can see how Sunlight has Google-mapped some of them. More info in Zephyr’s post and here.