I think it’s great that you’re bringing this to people’s attention and it is a shame that such moronic behaviour went on unchecked, but I have to disagree with your ‘solution’ to use Facebook connect. There are a number of problems with this:

1. Not everybody has Facebook.
2. It’s not a given that you can use Facebook to ‘see a real person’. I don’t have my photo on my FB profile, or any workplace details.
3. People could set up FB profiles just for the purpose of sending nasty messages. And I can’t see FB being in a rush to kick them off the service – there are already far more offensive things on FB that don’t get taken down.
4. The ability to post anonymously makes things quicker and encourages more people to do it. If you got rid of this, you’d also lose a lot of the good postings.
5. Freedom of speech and people’s privacy are both important principles. Sometimes it’s worth tolerating a few idiots to maintain these principles.

I think the answer is to have better moderation of comments and to call people out on it sooner. Explain that there behaviour is offensive.