ProPublica is a non-profit journalism outfit in New York founded by Herbert and Marion Sandler to produce independent journalism for distribution to the MSM. Yes, the same Sandlers lampooned by SNL last year for their role in the sub-prime meltdown. Other Sandler projects:

Since 1988, the Sandlers have financed non-profit organizations including Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties union, grass-roots organizers Acorn, the Center for Responsible Lending, the Center for Amercan Progress and ProPublica.

With that in mind, I was quite surprised at this ProPublica piece out today on the Obama pork package. To say ProPublica unloads on the Obama plan would be a fair statement. An excerpt:

Lumped together, the House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus plan number some 1,400 pages, roughly the equivalent of the complete works of Shakespeare.And some of the language is just as artfully crafted.
The package includes an insurance exemption — but only for companies that work on recreational boats longer than 65 feet. Another provision would lift a Medicare regulation affecting only three long-term care hospitals in the country. There’s also language requiring the Transportation Security Administration to buy 100,000 uniforms from U.S. apparel makers.
In theory and publicity, the package is “earmark free.” But it contains dozens of narrowly defined programs that send money to specific areas or cater to special interests, despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to pass “an economic recovery plan that is free from earmarks and pet projects.”
Some — like the yacht workers’ exemption — would take little or nothing from taxpayer pockets. Others, like $3 billion in extra transit money added by the House, are handing ammo to critics who say the stimulus plan, now at about $900 billion in the Senate, has morphed into a Christmas list.
As part of the ShovelWatch project with WNYC radio in New York, ProPublica plumbed the depths of the stimulus bills looking to see how closely Congress is coming to Obama’s stated goal.
What is an ‘earmark’? In part, the answer hinges on the definition of an “earmark.” Democrats insist they are nowhere in the plan; Republicans see “pork” everywhere. So we cribbed from criteria Congress laid out in a 2007 reform bill: language that aims spending at specific programs, states or localities, often at a member’s request.
Specific location? The Senate stimulus contains $50 million for habitat restoration and other water needs in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is another $62 million for military projects in Guam.
Specific contractors? The Senate bill directs $1.2 billion to the Transportation Security Administration for hardware, including explosive detection machines, which are made by only three companies: General Electric, L-3 Communications and Reveal Imaging Technologies. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, which is a GE company.)

Really worth reading the entire piece.