WASHINGTON, DC – Members of Congress know where the money is going: now citizens can, too. The Sunlight Foundation today released a Google Earth application that plots the locations for almost 1,500 earmarks in the House Defense Appropriations bill. This graphic illustration of defense earmarks gives anyone with an Internet connection a bird’s eye view of exactly where Congress is directing federal spending – and the ability to investigate whether the earmarks address pressing needs, favor political contributors or are simply pure pork.

To start navigating earmarks, download Google Earth and then download Sunlight’s House Defense file. This presents a 3-D view of where the recipients of earmarks in the House Defense appropriations bill are located and corresponding links to EarmarkWatch.org –where citizens can further research each earmark and its recipient. Users can search for earmarks by city, state or zip code.

“Navigating earmarks on Google Earth is much more compelling and user-friendly than reviewing a list of earmarks or a spreadsheet,” said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. “Americans who are concerned about government spending and the upsurge in member use of earmarks now have a simple way to visualize and investigate how Congress is awarding defense-related federal funds.”

Drawing on data from its EarmarkWatch.org site (created in collaboration with Taxpayers for Common Sense), this application lets citizens easily find and scrutinize House Defense earmarks on a state or district level. Sunlight created this Google Earth application to demonstrate the power of posting information online in graphically appealing ways that makes data more easily understood.

The Sunlight Foundation supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people. Through its projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst to create greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government.

AP NewsBreak: Blunt, Nixon trying to redirect refund checks

By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republican Gov. Matt Blunt and his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Jay Nixon, have begun refunding millions of dollars to big donors in compliance with a state Supreme Court decision reinstating Missouri’s campaign contribution limits.

But Blunt and Nixon both are trying to redirect that money to their state political parties, which could still use it for their benefit.

Along with his refund checks to contributors, Blunt has enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelop and a contribution form to the state Republican Party.

“The Missouri Republican Party can still accept unlimited contributions,” Blunt wrote in a letter accompanying the refund checks. “I would encourage you to make a generous contribution to that important organization.” Read more »

Dec 17, 2:59 PM EST

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has made its first shipment of nuclear fuel to an Iranian nuclear power plant at the center of the international tensions over Tehran’s atomic program, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The United States and Russia said the delivery gave Iran another reason to suspend its uranium enrichment program, but an official in Tehran said it would not.

The U.S. has been unhappy about Russia helping Iran build the Bushehr nuclear plant. But President Bush has supported Russia in providing uranium fuel to Iran as long as Moscow retrieves the used reactor fuel for reprocessing, as stipulated in an agreement between Russia and Iran.

“If that’s the case - if the Russians are willing to do that, which I support - then the Iranians do not need know how to enrich,” Bush said in Fredricksburg, Va. “If the Iranians accept that uranium for civilian nuclear power, then there’s no need for them to learn how to enrich.”

Iran contends the plant is strictly for civilian purposes, but critics say it could be used to advance efforts to build nuclear weapons.

The construction of the Bushehr plant has been frequently delayed. Officials said the delays were due to payment disputes, but many observers suggested Russia also was unhappy with Iran’s resistance to international pressure to make its nuclear program more open and to assure the international community that it was not developing nuclear arms.

Russia announced last week that its construction disputes with Iran had been resolved and said fuel deliveries would begin about a half year before Bushehr was expected to go into service. Read more »

The primary race is interesting. Hardliners battle for candidacy and then revert to populist rhetoric for the general election. Mitt Romeny and Mike Huckabee are fighting for the sympathies of the religious conservatives but don’t expect the battle to stay out of the gutter. Here’s the latest:
Dec 15 12:29 PM US/Eastern
By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer

HUMBOLDT, Iowa (AP) - Mitt Romney accused Republican presidential rival Mike Huckabee of “running from the wrong party” for criticizing President Bush’s foreign policy as an “arrogant bunker mentality.”

Romney defended Bush against Huckabee’s charge, which the former Arkansas governor leveled in the January-February issue of the respected journal Foreign Affairs.

“I can’t believe he’d say that,” Romney said to a gathering of about 100 supporters in a restaurant here. “I had to look again—did this come from Barack Obama or from Hillary Clinton? By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press Writer

Did it come from John Edwards? No, it was Governor Huckabee.” Read more »

FOUR FOREIGN NATIONALS ARRESTED AND CHARGED WITH BEING ILLEGAL AGENTS OF A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT

Three Venezuelans and an Uruguayan national were arrested last night and appeared in federal court in Miami today on charges of acting and conspiring to act as agents of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela within the United States, without prior notification to the Attorney General of the United States, as required by law, announced Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for Justice Department’s National Security Division, R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office.

Charged in the complaint were defendants Moises Maionica, 36, Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez, 37, Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello, 40, Franklin Duran, 40, and Carlos Kauffmann, 35. All have been arrested, except for defendant Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez, who remains at large. If convicted, the defendants face a statutory maximum penalty of ten (10) years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

According to the complaint filed in federal court, the defendants coordinated and participated in a series of meetings, beginning in August 2007, in South Florida with Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson to procure Antonini’s help in concealing the source of an intended $800,000 cash contribution to the political campaign of a candidate in the recent Argentine presidential election of Oct. 28, 2007. The last meeting took place on Dec. 11, 2007, when defendants Maionica, Duran, and another individual met with Antonini to discuss the creation of false documents in furtherance of the cover-up. Read more »