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IAmA REDDITOR: Here’s something you don’t see every day: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) in a miniskirt with her top political donors and their companies embroidered into it.

OpenSecrets.org discovered the provocative — and very photoshopped — image on Reddit.com. The creator used Center for Responsive Politics data to generate Bachmann’s NASCAR-like outfit, complete with “sponsor” patches. The image made it to the social news website’s front page, and it’s received more than 560 comments as of today.

On Wednesday, OpenSecrets Blog interviewed the image’s creator, Tim Ferrell, a film student at Portland State University who used Adobe Photoshop to generate it. Ferrell saw a message posted on Reddit.com by the user “Nagiom” calling for users to post pictures of politicians with logos of the organizations and corporations that have given the most to their campaigns. Instead of using a NASCAR jacket or business attire for Bachmann, he chose something a bit more revealing. When asked about the advantages of presenting the Center for Responsive Politics’ data visually, Ferrell responded that “if you can put information in an entertaining light often times it will receive more attention.”

Ferrell said he believes in what one of his professors once told him: an important role of art is to make people think — to start a conversation.

“Not that this photoshopped doodad can be called true art. I call it leisure-time-giggle-maker,” he joked.

Ferrell has plans to create more photoshopped pictures in the future.

The Center for Responsive Politics ranks the top donors by combining the donations made by the organization’s employees and political action committee. Corporations are not allowed to directly make donations to any federal-level candidate. For example, the “Honeywell” on Bachmann’s skirt is representing the $10,000 in contributions from the political action committee and the $5,050 donated by employees of Honeywell International.

In addition to Ferrell’s picture, other individuals have done similar things using the Center for Responsive Politics’ data. GOOD Magazine has an online section titled “Transparency” that featured a few images of corporate logos on politicians. Below is a picture of then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain McCain (R-Ariz.) and click here for a picture of Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.): (click for larger image)

The Center for Responsive Politics’ Mashups page displays more 20 examples of our data expressed in a creative way by others. Other Reddit.com pictures of politicians wearing donors’ logos are below:

(The Center for Responsive Politics does not endorse these pictures’ accuracy or display, but is posting them for purposes of discussion and entertainment)

IT’S GETTING SPICY AT THE FIESTA BOWL: The Fiesta Bowl has some explaining to do after organizers fired president and Chief Executive Officer John Junker for an alleged scheme to reimburse employees for political donations and “an apparent conspiracy” to cover it up.

The Fiesta Bowl, a NCAA college football bowl game and part of the Bowl Champion Series, will have to demonstrate why it should remain a part of the BCS. Its non-profit status may also be in jeopardy. The alleged scheme was first brought up in November 2009, after an article was published in the Arizona Republic about contribution reimbursements. An initial probe did not find evidence of wrongdoing. But a deeper investigation launched in September, when Junker’s executive assistant Kelly Keough told Fiesta Bowl board chairman Duane Woods that campaign donation reimbursements had been happening.

That resulted in a 276-page report that can be read on the Fiesta Bowl’s website. Among other things in the report, it states that Chief Operating Officer Natalie Wisneski and her husband Richard were reimbursed for their combined $4,200 donation to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign on March 8, 2007. Junker had reportedly been worried about the $4,200 check that was written to reimburse the Wisneskis, so he and his lobbyist, Gary Husk of Husk Partners, had come up with the idea to hide the reimbursement by labeling the expenditures as “personal legal services.” The contributions that were reimbursed (among many others) are below:

For more background of the lobbying efforts of the BCS and the Football Bowl Association read the article “BCS Becomes Political Football as Lobbyists Blitz Congress” by OpenSecrets.org Editor Dave Levinthal.

DEMOCRATS PROPOSE MORE CONTROL OVER DRUG PRICES: Pharmaceutical companies may be worrying now that senior Democrats such as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have called for the federal government to have more power in negotiating drug prices for recipients of Medicare, the government insurance program for senior citizens, according to the Financial Times.

This proposal goes against the agreement President Barack Obama had with the pharmaceutical industry behind closed doors where the industry agreed to support healthcare reform as long as the legislation did not include plans by some democrats to bring down the cost of drugs.

While Durbin is supporting this proposal to bring down drug costs, he himself is a recipient of pharmaceutical money. Since 2005, Durbin has received $110,000 from the pharmaceutical industry, with some of the money coming from the political action committees of companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co and GlaxoSmithKline.

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