The folks at the Sunlight Foundation are pioneering new ways for ordinary people to figure out bad politics, first Congresspedia, like Wikipedia for Congress.

Today, they announce a project where bloggers and good governemnt types can work together to expose corruption in the earmarks process. They providing a means where you can help figure out suspicious spending... and then confront politicians regarding that spending.

They're also doing so using a great mashup of Google maps with a database of spending.

This has significance beyond exposing a little corruption, it's a next step in a process where professional and citizen journalists work together to expose bad guys.

Please check it out here