Oil Webs

This is a pretty cool tool. It creates nodal maps for all of the presidential candidates wherein each candidate has a picture, the size of which represents his/her amount of contributions from the oil industry. These pictures are then connected to circles representing oil interest groups or companies by a line, the thickness of which represents the size of the contribution from that specific group. You can also click on the "Politician View" tab at the top to see an itemized breakdown of the candidates and their donations and even view the receipts for each pledge. I found this tool at the New Scientist website.

P.S.: That's Kerry from the 2004 Election in the upper left-hand corner, receiving just 7% ($184,000) of the $2.65 million Bush received from oil interests. Not to ruin your fun, but because I know you're interested, Al Gore received $142,000 in 2000 from various oil industry groups.