Petty crime: Michelle Bachmann plays "American Girl" after Tom Petty asks her not to

Does this look like a face that's amused?

​Behold the latest entry in the annals of political theft of music. Earlier this week, presidential hopeful Michelle Bachman got slapped with a cease and desist notice from Tom Petty, pleading with the congresswoman to, you know, please stop playing his song, "American Girl," at her campaign stops, lest anyone, you know, think that Bachmann's staunch neo-con political views somehow aligned with Petty's, which, evidently, they most definitely do not.

Understandably, since he'd prefer that no one make such an inference, he sent her a note asking her to, well, stop doing that, thank you very much. And, I don't know, that seems like a reasonable enough request. I mean, after all, it is his freaking song. Bachmann reportedly responded by playing the song. Again. Fantastic display of diplomacy there, eh? That's exactly the kind of person we want handling our foreign policy. May we suggest a more appropriate song for Bachman given this defiant gesture? How about that Rage Against the Machine tune? You know, the one that goes, "Fuck you! I won't do what you tell me?" What do you think? I'm sure Zach and the boys would co-sign that one.

Unfortunately, Bachmann isn't the first politico in history to appropriate somebody else's music. Check out our run down of other noteworthy offenders, most, if not all, of whom, let us point out, eventually relented and stopped playing the songs when asked.