First Tom Morello, Now Dee Snider

Paul Ryan keeps getting dissed by musicians.

First Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine scoffed that Ryan could be a fan of his former band by listening only to the music, not the politicized lyrics:

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

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I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!

Now comes word that Dee Snider of Twisted Sister told Ryan to cut out playing "We're Not Gonna Take It" at rallies without permission:

Dee Snider isn't going to take it any more.

The singer and reality-TV star Wednesday demanded that presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan stop using Snider's Twisted Sister anthem "We Aren't Going to Take It" at his campaign rallies.

"I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan's use of my song 'Were Not Gonna Take It' as recorded by my band Twisted Sister," said Snider in a statement. "There is almost nothing on which I agree with Paul Ryan, except perhaps the use of the P90X."

Both of these smack downs are cool, but they still rank just a notch below my all-time favorite smack down of a politician by a musician:

Almost a quarter century after their band split up, Morrissey can agree with Johnny Marr about one thing: David Cameron is not allowed to like the Smiths. Following Marr's recent comments "forbidding" the prime minister to like their band, the former Smiths frontman has echoed the sentiment, citing Cameron's support for hunting.

"Stop saying that you like the Smiths," Marr said last week, "no you don't." Whereas the guitarist made his remarks on Twitter, restraining himself to just 76 characters, Morrissey used the blog True to You to issue 11 paragraphs of vegetarian vitriol. "I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron," he wrote. "David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure. It was not for such people that either Meat Is Murder or The Queen Is Dead were recorded; in fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence."

Now that's great - "I love your band!" "No, you don't - I forbid you to like my band!"

Something for Paul Ryan to aspire to.

Tom Morello: We're Gonna Kick Walker's Legislative Teeth Out

Really inspirational words from Rage Against The Machine's guitarist Tom Morello:

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello spent Monday at the Wisconsin protests, performing acoustic songs at a rally and delivering a fiery speech to the thousands inside of the capital rotunda who are protesting Governor Walker’s attempt to end the right of state employees to collectively bargain. "What's happened so far might be the most inspiring 24 hours of my life as an activist," Morello tells Rolling Stone. "I've never seen this kind of outpouring of unapologetic, steel-backboned support for union causes in the United States. The Madison police were delivering bratwurst to the protesters inside the capitol, and the kids were thanking them. It was unbelievable."

At a freezing cold rally outside of the capital, Morello was joined by Rise Against frontman Tim Mcilrath, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 and Boston folk group Street Dogs. The show mixed classics like Neil Young's "Ohio," Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" and Morello's driving acoustic version of Rage Against the Machine's "Guerilla Radio." "No matter what Gov. Walker, the Mubarak of the Midwest, says, this land is your land," Morello said before singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." "Never give up and never give in!"

If Governor Walker’s bill passes, it would effectively destroy Wisconsin’s civil servant unions; many fear that other Republican-controlled states would attempt to follow suit. "I come from a coal-mining town in central Illinois where everybody was union," says Morello. "For almost 30 years, my mom was a public high school teacher in Libertyville, Illinois. I grew up with a firm belief that the leverage we have as working people is through the union. It's the only counterweight to the raw greed of corporate power. For the past 22 years, I've been a union man in L.A. as a member of the Professional Musicians Local 47."

After the rally, Morello entered the packed Capitol rotunda, which had been occupied for the past week, grabbed a bullhorn, and made one of the most rousing speeches of the day. "This is what they do in times of economic crisis," Morello said. "They think people aren't paying attention, that they can just sneak through this legislation that would rob us of decades, centuries of social progress. We didn't pick this fight. [Governor Walker] tapped us on the shoulder and said 'let's fight.' And now we're gonna knock his legislative teeth out."

Fred Klonsky has video at his blog.

Check it out - it's really, really good.

Man, it's so cool to see a "celebrity" and a musician come out and talk the talk of the union man and woman.

And he speaks this FROM HIS OWN experience, first with his mom as a teacher for 30 years, then as a member of Professional Musicians Local 47.

You hearing any of this, John Legend?

How about you, Sting?