PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Another pro-PorkBusters editorial:

The game goes like this: Each member must pretend to be fiscally responsible. They loudly decry “pork” and/or “fat” in the budget.

However, when it comes to their own district or state what might otherwise be labeled as “pork” turns into a vital public works project.

Therein lies the difficulty. Vital projects and pork projects each happen so frequently that it is difficult to tell the two apart.

But now a disparate group of watchdog organizations have come together in an attempt to provide more transparency to the process. The coalition produced a single database of what are called congressional “earmarks” and each group provides access to that database from its own Web site.

This isn’t all that novel, but the twist is that the coalition wants ordinary citizens to examine the list and to investigate any earmarks that catch their eye and report back via either blog or e-mail.

This operates on the theory that local people may be able to provide the best insights as to the relative merits of a particular earmark.

Nice that people are noticing. Meanwhile, Mark Tapscott is happy with Frist’s response today, but has some further questions. And Human Events’ Robert Bluey says they’ll hold Frist to his promise.

Plus, a look at pork and agro-terrorism.