Michael Moore flaunts his anti-Bush bias in his new documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11". Some of his arguments are questionable. So, it's easy to see why the White House has tried to squelch it. The movie portrays President Bush as a bumbler and a prevaricator over the Iraq war. But, in America, censorship and secrecy don't play well. We love our free speech rights. With the President's unintended help, and despite its limited release, the film earned more money than any other new movie the weekend it opened. People waited in long lines to buy tickets. The film continues to attract sell-out crowds.

My son, Jim, and I had an interesting conversation after we both saw the movie. We agreed that Moore went overboard in his attempt to link a relationship between the Bushes and the Saudi ruling family to the President's decision to attack Iraq. But my son saw great value in the movie's commentary on the malfunctioning of our democracy over the last three years.

As he analyzed it, the integrity of our democracy is protected through a system of checks and balances and guided by the will of the people. Consequently, it's essential for Americans to get full, objective, and accurate information. When this does not happen, our democracy stumbles. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows how these fundamental requirements of democracy were violated in the run-up to the Iraq war.

The catalyst that allowed these violations to occur was 9/11. In a time of crisis, the nation gets behind the President. That is the right thing to do. But, such a pulling together should never reach the point where our fundamental institutions fail to function or our basic rights are jeopardized. After September 11, this is what happened in the United States, and this is what Michael Moore highlights in his documentary.

The separation of the legislative and executive branches is vital to protecting our freedoms. It assures that no branch of government can acquire enough power to erode our civil rights. In addition, a free press is supposed to make sure that Americans get accurate, objective information, especially when our government misleads us.

Even before September 11, the Bush Administration had decided to go to war with Iraq. When they used the terrorist attacks to justify that decision, neither Congress nor the press fulfilled their responsibility to challenge the Administration. Democratic Congressional leaders spinelessly fell in behind the President, failing to question his erroneous assertions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein was associated with the terrorist attacks. Nor did they stand up to the Patriot Act, which gave the President extraordinary powers to spy on, arrest, and detain our citizens without due process.

The press happily embedded itself with military units in Iraq, who quickly co-opted them, reporting primarily on the remarkable accuracy of our weapons, our rapid conquest of Iraq, and the joy of the Iraqis at being liberated. As we now know, and as "Fahrenheit 9/11" documents, much went unreported that was counter to the Administration's propaganda machine. Many of our bombs killed innocent Iraqi civilians. Most Iraqis came rapidly to despise their liberators/occupiers. The promise of rebuilding a shattered country and creating a lively democracy in the Middle East has been ground under by bombs, destruction, and rage.

The Administration has continued to play on the shock of 9/11 by constantly alerting the American people to real or imagined terror threats. Rather than challenge the underlying assumptions and intelligence supposedly supporting these vague warnings, Congress and the press have remained largely silent. Keeping America alert is essential; keeping us fearful is a frightening political strategy.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" challenges us to question what the Bush Administration says and does. It forces us to look at the fraying of our system of checks and balances over the last 3 years. While the movie itself is Michael Moore's personal agenda, it certainly provides the other side of the Bush war rhetoric. Whether you love it or hate it, it is a "must see" movie for Americans trying to make sense of our current mess.