Radical leftist punk band inspired accused gunman

Jared Loughner, the alleged Arizona assassin, may have been inspired by the radical leftist punk-rock band Anti-Flag, one of his favorite bands, according to a schoolmate who posted on Twitter.com her reminiscences about her association with Loughner.

Loughner, 22, is in custody accused of opening fire into a crowd in Tucson, Ariz., killing six and critically wounding Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

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Almost immediately after the news of the shooting broke, Caitie Parker self identified on Twitter that she had gone to school and been in a band with Loughner:

Then, in responding to "antderosa," Parker made clear that Loughner "was a pot head & into rock like Hendrix, The Doors, Anti-Flag:"

"Antderosa" is the Twitter username for Anthony DeRosa, an employee of Reuters Media, who has had a history of tweeting continuing attacks on Fox News and Fox News talk show hosts Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, as well as a wide range of conservative media and political figures.

In responding to a variety of twitter posters, Parker identified being a band member with Loughner in "an alternative band":

Here is the old photograph of Loughner that Parker found from her high school yearbook:

Publishing Parker's tweets, James King of the Phoenix New Times confirmed that Parker and Loughner went to school together at Mountain View High School in Tucson and that both attended Pima Community College.

Anti-Flag echoed Loughner's themes, posted in his YouTube channel, of mind control and antipathy to the U.S. flag in "Red, White and Brainwashed," a theme to the group's 1996 album entitled "Die for the Government."

The lyrics:

They use the flag to control us
Brainwash us to be their patrotic slaves
Programs our minds by controlling what we learn
The only difference from the nazis is that
Someone tried to stop them
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
The government says they're working for us
Just as long as we increase their pay
But the minute they get into office we're a has-been
A yesterday
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
The red stands for the blood of all the people
We've slain
The white for this racist, bigoted foundation
The blue for your aryan eyes – all empty
Empty because you're taught to bow down to the man
Fly that flag, that flag of freedom
Do what you can for your country
Go and fight their wars for them
They're not following in our footsteps,
KILL THEM!
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
They call that being a patriot
I just call it ignorant
If you don't fight to make things better
Then you're the one betraying the country
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED
RED WHITE AND BRAINWASHED

Anti-Flag’s song "Free Nation?" from their 1999 album entitled "A New Kind of Army," echoed themes that should be familiar to anti-war protesters with a radical political consciousness that traces back to the 1960s.

Here are the lyrics to "Free Nation?"

State official talks of freedom
THEY-TALK!
In this country that we live in
THEY-TALK!
Free to be harassed and be beaten by the pigs
YOUR RIGHTS? NO RIGHTS!
Till you're f------ broken, crippled, or until you're f------ DEAD!

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YEAH!

They pass laws unfair to gays
THEIR-WORK
And separatist laws to keep the non-whites in their place
THEIR-WORK
Family values as a smoke screen blowing in your face
THEIR TRUTH? NO TRUTH!
Family values isn't something that shouldn't be based on hate

Based on hate...

Justice presides over them, late into the night,
A blind fold covering their eyes, but something isn't right...
Under their arms, there are shackles on her legs
And the hands that once held up her scales are bound,
Are bound in chains!
Bound in chains...

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And behind their closed door, they conspire through the night
MORE WORK? SICK WORK!
And they won't stop until this nation is all straight and all white!

NO!!

They call it a free nation... but all it is, is A NAZI NATION!!!

The song "Free Nation?" was evidently so popular that Anti-Flag included it again, in their 2002 album entitled "Mobilize."

Or, perhaps Loughner drew inspiration from a song entitled "We Are the One" on their 2009 album "The People or the Gun," a song that appears to have borrowed from a theme developed in the "Matrix" movie trilogy, a theme Barack Obama wove into his 2008 presidential campaign.

Here are the lyrics from "We Are the One":

It's time to make a move,
Change the times or they'll change you.

False promises of more.
Check that s--- at the door.
We're the ones we've been waiting for.

We are the one...Unified under none.
We are the one...The one to carry on.
Warfare is everywhere.
Poisoned land, water, air.
This routine is long old.
It's time to break that mold.
We'll break it up, then we'll break out.
Withstand the change.
Tear it down rebuild again.
Evolve with vision.
This year's eve, we will breathe fury.
I will scale the city walls.

Reviewers typically describe Anti-Flag as violent punk rock anti-government political music that derives its rhetoric from the radical left.

In an interview with Punxrukus.blogspot.com, Justin Cathal Geever, who goes by the stage name Justin Sane, Anti-Flag's guitarist and lead singer/songwriter, summed up the theme behind Anti-Flag as follows: "The idea behind Anti-Flag is to bring down the false barriers that are put in place by people in power around the world. We think that Patriotism and Nationalism – they're imaginary boundaries that are being set up by the people in power that divide the masses. We want to break down those barriers and bring people together. Instead of having different flags around the world, to have people united under one flag."