Gibson's "Passion" was touted as an accurate portrayal of the final moments of the life of Christ. This despite that scholars don't really know what exactly happened to Christ and certainly Gibson's work can't truly be called accurate since he based it off of interpretations of the New Testament, itself edited and revised. Gibson's film was fiction pushed as nonfiction and the faithful flocked in such numbers that Gibson is now one of Hollywood's most powerful producers. Critics lambasted the violence and the inherent anti-semitism, but since so much of Religion is blind interpretation and calls to Faith, the criticisms fell on deaf ears. Rationality didn't apply.

Moore's film is propaganda and is pushed as such. He presents the "other side of the coin", alternative interpretations of the Bush Administrations actions and sayings. Moore is presenting non-fiction as, well, non-fiction. You can criticize his manipulations of the facts and snippets but you can't criticize that the snippets were there for all to see. Moore didn't use computer graphics to doctor the snippets, no phony blood - just sheer manipulation to drive home a point: the Bush Administration is dangerously using the Government (OUR Government) for its own devices.

And I find it scary that someone like Little Miss Attila and others went and saw "The Passion" and were profoundly moved by it's accuracy (despite the fiction). Yet these same people happily lambast "Fahrenheit 9/11" without seeing it, despising it for its manipulations. Both sides of the coin exist in terms of Moore's subject. You can find Bush's speeches on the Net. Moore is simply presenting the flipside. With Gibson however there is no flipside. Any attempt to portray the last moments of Christ in any fashion than that popularly believed will be severely lambasted or minimized and forgotten. No two sides to that coin.

Bush's America consists of Right-wing reactionaries who are afraid of Truth, Knowledge, and Thinking, who see violence and strength of arms as the only means to gain respect, who support each other through Faith as the solution to all problems, who see people who disagree with them as enemies. Moore, despite all criticisms, is showing that there's a reality under the Bush fantasy. You don't like it? Tough, blame Bush, not him. Moore doesn't have American blood on his hands because of his propaganda.

And the more I think about the two films, the more scared I am by what they represent and what America has come to. That we even need a film like "F 9/11" shows how much control and manipulations our Government has over the Media, that the Rightists want to thoroughly squelch Moore's film show how much our country has fallen. I feel that if our country continues our downwards slide to the Right we'll be little more than an American version of the enemies we profess to fight, where censorship runs rampant, where you must believe in (the Christian) God, where the poor see their future in terms of the Military or McDonalds, where the rich have their own set of rules and blatantly lord them over the populace.

Is this our America? Run in secret by politicians who speak with empty words, who maneuver for friends and corporations, who see their own power gain as more important than governing? Is this our country where a blatant violation of our Constitution like "In God We Trust" on our money raises more concern than the blood shed in a war based on lies and distortions?

Bush has ruined America and I fear Kerry won't be much of an improvement. We need solutions. We need an overhaul to the system to allow American voices to be heard over the shuffling of kickback checks. Removing the Electoral College is a start. Open-source, accountable electronic voting machines and removing partisan voting are improvements. If we want all Americans to vote than we have to give them a reason to - choices; honest elections - instead of the same-old, same-old. Come November let's get rid of Bush as a start...