[There was a video here]

If you've watched any of CNN or Fox News' coverage of the George Zimmerman trial, you've probably encountered Frank Taaffe, Zimmerman's friend and his most visible defender. But you probably haven't seen his virulently racist Twitter account or heard his appearance on a white supremacist's podcast.

Mother Jones' Mariah Blake, however, has. It's not like you can't tell that Taaffe, who's been all over Fox News, CNN, HLN and even the New York Times, is a racist—watch the clip above, in which he describes affirmative action as slavery for "whitey" on Dr. Drew's HLN show—but it's nice to see the evidence really laid out:

A Mother Jones investigation has found that the 56-year-old New York native has a lengthy criminal record that includes charges of domestic violence and burglary, and a history of airing virulently racist views. Just last Sunday, he appeared on The White Voice, a weekly podcast hosted by a man named Joe Adams, who has deep, long-standing ties to white-power groups and has authored a manual called Save The White People Handbook. (Sample quote: "A mutt makes a great pet and a mulatto makes a great slave.")

During a previous White Voice appearance, on July 27, Taaffe argued that whites and blacks have no business mingling. ("They don't want to be with us and we don't want to be with them.") [...] Taaffe's private Twitter feed (@pinsones) also reeks of racial animus. In one tweet, he bashed Michael Skolnik, who directs hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons' political operations, saying "how much nigga cock do u suck an one day or maybe u like it pounded up ur hebe ass." In another he wrote, "the only time a black life is validated is when a white person kills them."

The most satisfying—or maybe most depressing—thing we learn about Taaffe isn't just that he's a vocal and explicit racist, but that he himself is guilty of many of the things he accuses black people of: He's been arrested for DUI, twice charged with battery and "repeat assault," been the subject of domestic violence complaints filed by his wife and son, and charged with burglary. He's also a "marginal figure in the lives of his children," which is rich for a guy who's "railed against absentee black fathers."

But don't think he feels ashamed: Taaffe tells Blake he's just "echoing the suppressed voices in this country that have been beleaguered by affirmative action and crimes committed by that particular group of people" and won't be stopping any time soon.