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Well who woulda thunk it! According to The New York Times, Paul Ryan is a Rage Against the Machine fan. In fact the conservative Wisconsin Congressman says it’s his favorite band. Huh?! His musical pick has made some folks (including myself) more than a bit confused. Hey Paul, are ya sure you didn’t mean Ted Nugent? While Ryan’s musical taste is a bit odd given his ultra conservative politics, guess who is having none of it? Rage Against the Machine! Tom Morella, the band’s guitarist, is now blasting Mitt Romney’s VP pick, and what he has to say is pretty darn scathing. At one point, Morello goes so far as saying that Paul Ryan is the "embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades." Oh snap!

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This feels kind of like that time when Ronald Reagan mistakenly referenced Born in the U.S.A in his 1984 re-election campaign -- only to later realize that the hit tune was an anti-Vietnam War song. Oops. Listen to the lyrics people!

Hey Pauly boy, maybe it’s time to start saying that Carly Rae Jepsen is your favorite artist. She seems like a nice Canadian girl that won’t slam you into the ground for associating with her. Or Paul maybe you should try on the Jonas Brothers’ music for size. I hear they are reuniting, plus are three nice Christian boys who probably fit into your fan base. Maybe you should delve into their aural pleasures? Or maybe you should just list any band that isn’t Rage against the Machine, an uber political band that has been making waves for the past 21 years. Do you not remember Rage’s debut album, Rage Against the Machine, whose cover featured Malcolm Browne's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1963 photograph of a Buddhist monk burning himself to death in Saigon, protesting the murder of Buddhists by the US-backed Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm's regime? Because I do.

Here are some other choice snippets from Morello’s Rolling Stone op-ed piece: "Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage. 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!"

"Don't mistake me, I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta 'rage' in him: a rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions."

I don’t really have much else to say since Tom Morello, pretty much said it all.