As if the Wisconsin teacher protests aren’t getting enough attention, some celebrities are throwing a bit of star power into the mix. Tom Morello, the former guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, performed for the protesters yesterday, but even those who haven’t made it to Madison are weighing in.
The Daily Caller combed the twitter machine for responses to the protests from celebs. We learned a couple things: Celebrities twitter feeds are nauseatingly shallow for the most part, and those that are not are generally more concerned with the earthquake in New Zealand and the protests in the Middle East.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, most celebs come in on the sides of the unions. “Wisconsin -Thank you for standing up for yourselves (and rest of us),” tweeted Ben Folds, the piano player and singer. He briefly engaged in an argument about teacher salaries with another tweeter.
“Freedom Democracy Unions collective bargaining rights for public workers. People of wisconsin. Who doesn’t bargen? Wis. hold on Baby!” said actor Danny DeVito in tweet Friday. He later tweeted, “Go Union. Got to be able to bargain. Life is a negotiation. call off the cops. Settle down and sit at the table with the people.”
DeVito didn’t seem to be advocating for the unions getting exactly what they wanted, as much as for both sides to have a dialogue on the subject. “everybody must get screwer [we assume this is meant to say ‘screwed’] It’s how deep does the screw have to go. let the bargaining begin. Use the mind to form the contract,” he tweeted in response to someone thanking him for his support.
Actor Mark Ruffalo, a native of Kenosha, Wisc. has been actively tweeting in support of the protesters. “Shout out to workers in Wisconsin!! Proud to be one of your very own! Go Wisconsin!!!” he tweeted Friday. He later tweeted asking supporters to tag their tweets #wiunion, and Ruffalo has retweeted many of these.
“#wiunion Conservative Gov. scapegoats the workers for his Corporate tax breaks then uses deficit to break the back of the unions. It’s BS,” he tweeted on Saturday, in a typical tweet. His Wisconsin tweets are interspersed with support of the protesters in the Middle East.
Michael Moore has also tweeted his way into the fray. On Thursday, he tweeted, “Madison is the new Cairo! Wisconsin teachers, nurses, firefighters — shut the state down! All of working America is with u!” He hasn’t stopped tweeting on the subject since.
“Madison WI again flooded with 10s of 1000s of people fighting to stop the balls-out assault on the middle class. Inspiring,” he said later on Thursday.
“U know us as Midwest. We r fightingback. We will risk everything we have if that’s what it takes. We-will-shut-the-machine-down. Pls b w/us” he tweeted just after midnight on Tuesday.
Charles Woodson, captain of the Green Bay Packers, joined several of his teammates in issuing a statement supporting the protesters. “Last week I was proud when many of my current and former teammates announced their support for the working families fighting for their rights in Wisconsin,” he said. “Today I am honored to join with them.”
Comedian Kathy Griffin jumped in as well, tweeting: “I support YOU! My sister’s a public school teacher RT@rogerbinion:@kathygriffin u support the public workers gettin screwed by the WI Gov?”
Jeff Skiles, the co-pilot of the plane that safely landed in the Hudson River despite mechanical problems, went to a press conference in support of the unions on Monday.