The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, on Sen. Barack Obama and fighting rumors:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama learned an important lesson from the 2004 presidential campaign: Don't be passive about false rumors.

When Democratic nominee and Vietnam War veteran John Kerry, who served with distinction in the U.S. Navy and won multiple Purple Hearts for wounds in battle, was attacked for a lack of patriotism, his campaign was slow to respond. Obama won't be so passive. ...

But after the dustup last week over comments attributed to his wife, Michelle, the Obama campaign took to the Internet with a vengeance and a new Web site. Michelle Obama was accused of using a derogatory term for white people, which she and her husband roundly denied when it was reported and deny again on the Web site.

The name of the Web site, fightthesmears.com, says it all clearly and concisely. Obama's camp will respond to smears instantly and forcefully. It will not be easily swiftboated, not be passive about rumors no matter how bizarre, not be caught unaware of the destructive potential of false statements.

It's an unfortunate reality of modern politics that the most absurd charges assume a life of their own on the Internet. Anyone can post any nutty thing, and it spreads like a virus. This is the new gutter politics, and it can be effective. ...

But Democrats have learned from the swiftboating of Kerry that they can and must fight back. Fightthesmears.com is an excellent tool for turning lies and smears back on their perpetrators and revealing the truth.

Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, on the FBI and delays:

The FBI uses old technology and inadequately trained workers to perform security checks on people applying for citizenship and other immigration benefits, a government audit found.

Yawn. How about telling the American people something they haven't heard before? ...

The old system has resulted in large backlogs for the security checks on names of immigrants working their way through legal channels to become naturalized citizens or legal residents, and it's affecting U.S. businesses that rely on foreign workers.

In defense of the agency, some of the backlog, according to FBI Assistant Director John Miller, came as a result of a request from what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service to re-screen 2.7 million names through a more in-depth process following the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

But that was nearly seven years ago. Although 86 percent of the name-check requests are completed within 60 days, the rest can take anywhere from several months to more than a year. ...

An effective and efficient name-check system is crucial to making that happen, and Congress controls the purse strings for allocating the funds needed for the personnel, training and technology upgrades.