class JobStatus(Base):

    ...

    def __iter__(self):
        values = vars(self)
        for attr in self.__mapper__.columns.keys():
            if attr in values:
                yield attr, values[attr]

    def logme(self):
        return dict(self)

source: http://stackoverflow.com/a/13752442

#!/usr/bin/python

import json
import requests
from pprint import pprint
from pygments import highlight
from pygments.lexers import PythonLexer
from pygments.formatters import Terminal256Formatter
from pprint import pformat

def pprint_color(obj):
    print highlight(pformat(obj), PythonLexer(), Terminal256Formatter())

data = {
    u'type': u'requiesttype',
    u'searchkey': 'string that is searched for'}

url = 'http://url.to/submit/to'

r = requests.post(
    url,
    data=json.dumps(data))

try:
    pprint_color(
        json.loads(r.text))
except ValueError:
    print r.text