FightTheSmears.com

That Swift Boat Bullshit is not going down this time around:

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama launched a new website Thursday devoted to dousing "smears" against the first African-American with a serious shot at the presidency.

The site at www.fightthesmears.com debunks false rumors doing the rounds of the Internet and right-wing media outlets -- including one recent assertion that Obama's wife Michelle has been caught on tape slurring white people.

Obama's main campaign website already had a fact-check section to refute rumors such as the Christian candidate is a secret Muslim. But aides said the new site went further in inviting supporters to spread the word.

"We created an interactive tool to allow our supporters to fight back against these smears in the same way that they received them -- on the Internet," campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Naturally the unemployed conservatives who spend their time advancing slime of this type at FreeRepublic.com and extending all the way to the poor Houston Chronic are hard at work.

Just ain't gonna work out like it did four years ago.

The new initiative was launched after reports, by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh among others, that a videotape existed showing Michelle Obama using the derogatory term "whitey" in the couple's former church.

No such tape has surfaced despite frenzied speculation by right-wing pundits and blogs, and Obama last week decried the mainstream media's attention to "dirt and lies."

Political candidates have traditionally refused to acknowledge slanderous rumors for fear of giving them respectability. But given the slew of emailed attacks being spread against Obama, his campaign said it had no choice but to respond in kind.

"Whenever challenged with these lies, we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the Internet," Vietor said.

Left with a candidate whom the world has passed by -- one they themselves have tarred "liberal" -- the reactionary Right responds with the only tool left in their box: lies intended to provoke fear.

Between this news and a Supreme Court that has -- for the third time -- smacked down an administration bent on denying due process for six years now to Guantanemo detainee, today is once again a bad day to be a Republican.

Texas GOP in Houston this week

Lock up the children (the women are probably safe):

The Texas Republican Convention gets under way in earnest today in downtown Houston with an appeals court still considering a lawsuit aimed at changing the gathering's procedures.

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state House Speaker Tom Craddick are today's scheduled featured speakers for the gathering of about 10,000 delegates and activists at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Speakers set for Friday and Saturday include Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and national GOP figures Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

Say one thing for the GOoPers, they can still draw the worst and darkest to speak to them. But here's the fun part ...

A group of Republicans including supporters of Paul's presidential campaign and others sued the party last week on grounds that it fails to follow state law that requires procedures to make the convention's actions official. The group essentially alleges that party leaders ignore the rules to retain power and limit dissent — a charge the party denies.

After County Court-at-Law Judge Roberta Lloyd said Monday she had no jurisdiction to try the lawsuit, the group appealed to the all-Republican, Houston-based First Court of Appeals, which refused Wednesday to intervene on an emergency basis. That means the convention will kick off at 1 p.m. free of any court orders.

But the court — justices Tim Taft, Sam Nuchia and Jane Bland — asked lawyers in the case to send written arguments on the case by 5 p.m. today, leaving the possibility of further court action.

The Paulies will likely disrupt this convention in some benign fashion. I'm just sorry I don't have the stomach to be around so many Republicans long enough to cover their convention, because it would probably be a laugh a minute.

Update: Harold Cook welcomes the delegates.