Rumor has it that Michael Moore needs to get his Bush-bashing documentary out pronto (with the DVD following close behind) because his film will pass its sell-by date on Election Day. That would reduce the brilliant battering ram that is Fahrenheit 9/11 to propaganda with no resonance as cinema, history, humanism or entertainment. Nuts to that. Getting Bush out is just part of Moore's agenda. Political hypocrisy, across all party lines, is on trial in this broadside from the director of Roger and Me and Bowling for Columbine.

Disney found the film too explosive to release it through its Miramax subsidiary, so Miramax bought it back and found other distribution. At Cannes, the film won the Palme d'Or, the top prize. The ovation that followed was dismissed by cynics as European anti-Americanism. Nuts to that, too.

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."