Just prior to the Veep debate on Tuesday, I viewed the just-released DVD of Fahrenheit 9/11. In addition to the two-hour advocacy movie, the disc contains an hour and a half of additional scenes, mostly longer looks at topics already covered in the feature attraction. (Although you do get a hilarious/poignant bit set at an Arab-American Comedy Festival!)

F 9/11 just might be the first major theatrically-released movie with a “pull-by” date. Director-narrator Michael Moore intended it to be a pre-election persuader. Everything about its domestic release, including the early flap about which company or companies would release it, tied into making it as visible to as many people as possible over the summer and fall of 2004. Now, Moore says he wants a network or (more likely) cable TV airing the night before the election. This might not be feasible—he’d have to find a willing network, and pay off or otherwise appease his home-video licensees.

But yes, F 9/11 will still exist after Nov. 3. Depending on the election’s outcome (if the outcome’s even known the following day), it will become either a historic document or a warning of worse crimes against society yet to come. If the Ashcroft censorship gang has its way, the F 9/11 DVD could even become a contraband rarity, whose mere possession could get you jailed. (I’ve got friends who’d lived in Franco’s Spain and Pinochet’s Chile, two countries our right wing wishes the US were more like. It just might happen.)