Super Bowl halftime performer and Barack Obama's personal serenader Bruce Springsteen has taken his criticism of mega-corporations to a whole new level. He just got done criticizing his own exclusive sales deal with Wal-Mart, and now he's railing against Ticketmaster.

With Wal-Mart, Springsteen's about-face comes as fans (or the media) criticized him for signing an album distribution deal with the retailer, whose labor practices are notoriously wretched. Wal-Mart fights unions, has little going in the way of health care, and lets its employees get trampled to death by overeager shoppers. And Springsteen is a devout supporter of laborers' rights. Oil and vinegar, then.

And now Ticketmaster, the ticketing agent for his Working on a Dream tour, is on the receiving end of Springsteen's whip. Minutes after tickets for the tour went on sale Monday, Ticketmaster was telling wannabe purchasers that tickets were sold out, then redirecting them to TicketsNow, its own after-market ticket resale site where prices were jacked up hundreds of dollars, and whose sales Springsteen wouldn't see a cut of.

With that little trick to score extra cash, Springsteen is, rightfully so, also criticizing the proposed merger with Live Nation, the only other real competition when it comes to event and concert ticketing.

Posts Springsteen on his official site:

We know there was much confusion regarding Ticketmaster and TicketsNow during last Monday's on-sale dates. We were as confused as you were, as we were given no advance notice of the major changes in the Ticketmaster-TicketsNow world. (Bear in mind that we are not clients of any ticketing company, and that all those arrangements are between venues and ticketing companies.)

Last Monday, we were informed that Ticketmaster was redirecting your log-in requests for tickets at face value, to their secondary site TicketsNow, which specializes in up-selling tickets at above face value. They did this even when other seats remained available at face value. We condemn this practice.

We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest. Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges. TicketsNow is supposed to be a secondary site where people who already have tickets may exchange, trade, and, unfortunately, speculate with them. We have asked this redirection from Ticketmaster to TicketsNow cease and desist immediately and Ticketmaster has agreed to do so in the future and has removed its unwanted material from their and our site.

We know the many cynical arguments some make in favor of the Ticketmaster system: There are rumors that some artists or managers participate in Ticketmaster charges–we do not. There are rumors that some artists or managers are receiving a percentage of the amount above face value at secondary outlets like TicketsNow–we do not. Some artists or managers may not perceive there to be a conflict between having the distributor of their tickets in effect "scalping" those same tickets through a secondary company like TicketsNow–we do.

While many of you have sent notes to us and your local promoters, you may also send accurate informational letters to Albert Lopez of Ticketmaster and he will try to address your questions.

A final point for now: the one thing that would make the current ticket situation even worse for the fan than it is now would be Ticketmaster and Live Nation coming up with a single system, thereby returning us to a near monopoly situation in music ticketing. Several newspapers are reporting on this story right now. If you, like us, oppose that idea, you should make it known to your representatives.

The abuse of our fans and our trust by Ticketmaster has made us as furious as it has made many of you. We will continue to do our utmost now and in the future to make sure that these practices are permanently curtailed on our tours.

Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and the entire Springsteen Tour Team

And now the Office of the Attorney General and the Division of Consumer Affairs are investigating the matter.

But Springsteen, who gets a huge cut of the receipts Ticketmaster collects, isn't the only one who should be nervous. Music lovers should be quivering, too, since a Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger would all but guarantee those "convenience fees" "will-call surcharges" will be subject to, uh, The Rising.