Where would we be without the blogs?
Thank Freeper, of all places, for providing us with the smoking gun of angry musings and bigotted blogs posted by Jerry Corsi, one of the co-authors of Unfit for Command.
Thank Media Matters for documenting Corsi's sick, self-defeating trash
Thank Kos for citing it the other day. (And Kevin Drum as well.)
And thank about 100 other bloggers who probably wrote about Corsi's oral sewage before I ever would have found it.
Because if it weren't for the blogs, we wouldn't finally have an Associated Press story providing a "mainstream" media take on the whole thing. <sarcasm>Scooped by only four days!</sarcasm>
And that means we wouldn't finally have a version of the story surfacing in the print and over-the-air press around the country. Maybe the 511 undecided voters left in America will read it over their low-carb cornflakes tomorrow.
In case you missed it, Corsi blogs on FreeRepublic as jrlc. What kind of vile trash are we talking about? Well, the AP lists some of the highlights:
One of the authors of a new anti-John Kerry (news - web sites) book frequently posted comments on a conservative Web site describing Muslims and Catholics as pedophiles and Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II as senile.
...
In chat room entry last year on freerepublic.com, Corsi writes: "Islam is a peaceful religion -- just as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered and the infidels are killed."
In another entry, he says: "So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican (news - web sites) altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that's probably about it."
...
In a March posting, Corsi discussed Kerry's faith, writing: "After he married TerRAHsa, didn't John Kerry begin practicing Judaism? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?"
Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are Catholic.
Frankly, the AP skipped the worst of it, calling Islam a "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion," referring to Muslims as "RAGHEADS" and Boy-Bumpers," and prattling on about Hillary Clinton in language that's just so silly and stupid (even as it is calculated to offend) that I don't even feel like cutting and pasting it here. It's in the Kos link.
For his part, Corsi is reduced to admitting not only that he's a bigot, but that he's a bigot without convictions. "I don't stand by any of those comments and I apologize if they offended anybody," Corsi said. He also claims to be a devout Catholic. Somebody's ought to have a long list next time he goes to Confession.
Does this mean the media finally gets tough on this book? (And did anyone see the Nightline special on the Swift Boat Vets for Bush? How was it?) Do they finally provide just the tiniest little bit of context?
Who am I kidding? Probably not. But without the blogs, there'd be no mention of this stuff whatsoever. And there's a very real chance it could have turned into another unmet Willie Horton ad.
So, kudos to Kos, et al. And kudos to "all y'all," who were up half the night writing this stuff long before I'd bracketed my first auto-format. There's hope yet, and you're part of the reason.