Wiser men than I have taken the mantra that democracy depends on an informed electorate.

Along that line of reasoning, I applaud Apple and Audible.com for publishing free copies of the 9/11 Commission report and speeches from each day of the Democratic Convention. The curious can download those items through the iTunes Music Store.

Ted Kennedy rings in my ear as I write this. He spoke the evening of July 27 at the convention in Boston. I look forward to listening to the rest of that evening, which also includes Senate wannabe Barack Obama, Ron Reagan and Teresa Heinz Kerry. So far, only nights one and two of the convention have made it into the iTunes catalog, but they’ll get the rest of the week soon enough.

I imagine they’ll get the GOP speeches from New York in just under a month.

Conventions have lost some luster over time. Still, they play an integral role in the civic discourse that comprises our republic. Since the US lacks earmarked media time for politicians to channel their messages (like the UK), the conventions also offer the best chances to learn, outside of sound bites, where candidates stand.

The free audio copy of the 9/11 Commission report is dictation of the report’s executive summary. Hard copies of the report bear an affordable price tag ($10), but iTunes distribution will likely reach hundreds, if not thousands, who might not buy it. Listening to the executive summary, while not a true substitute for reading the whole thing, certainly beats nothing.

It is vital that Americans know what the 9/11 panel found, not just what the talking heads focus on in their short-attention-span segments. It’s vital that Americans participate by listening to what their politicians say - tuning in to the civic discourse.

It’s vital that citizens do their part to stay informed.

Again, kudos to Audible.com and Apple for their part.

Outfoxed makes no pretense about its agenda.

The movie, distributed by MoveOn.org, supports a complaint the group filed against Fox News with the Federal Trade Commission. That complaint alleges the channel uses “deceptive practices in the advertising and marketing of cable television programming” through its slogan “fair and balanced.”

The group’s filing with the FTC belies excellent showmanship. Mostly organized, left-of-center believers have needed an effective organization at the national level - a focus - for some time.

FTC officials dismissed it summarily. “There is no way to evaluate this petition without evaluating the content of the news at issue. That is a task the First Amendment leaves to the American people, not a government agency,” Chairman Timothy J. Muris published in response.

For Muris, it’s an obvious call. It’s also the right call.

Still, Outfoxed does have good points. The “fear and consumption” concept is solid ground. Outpourings of reporting resources on crime and trivial environmental health issues scare viewers into buying security (in whatever indulgent form they find it).

Fox News, in my own experience, does rely too much on the weak “some say” crutch. MoveOn has a valid criticism. Good interviewers would avoid putting such a puny twig under a weighty inquiry. Read these aloud, and hear the difference:

Some say you had sexual relations with that woman, Mr. President.

Mr. President, did you have sexual relations with that woman?

The former absolves the speaker of the responsibility, and consequences, of having asked a question. The latter is how a responsible journalist asks a question, confident in the fact that his or her research already uncovered the answer.

Which leads me to the second point I took from Outfoxed: that opinion can’t be proven wrong. Or, more to the point, you can defend opinion with rhetoric, but facts have to be defended with sources.

That, for me, offers the main reason to tune out Fox News. I see a lot of flashy graphics and video. The only substances I feel are anger and xenophobia coming through their interviewers and paid analysts.

MoveOn has in the past put donors’ cash to innovative use, mainly through witty and intelligent ad spots. But this guerrilla film, though clever and entertaining for the sympathetic mind, is the easy fight and the wrong fight. MoveOn should put some of its vast resources to work educating news consumers. Give supporters entertainment, but leave them with a better idea of how to recognize good and bad journalism.

As Chairman Muris said, this is a task “the First Amendment leaves to the American people, not a government agency.”

Super Size Me doesn’t give viewers much in the way of revolutionary messages. We know, at least subconsciously, that fast food dissolves our insides into pudding. The film’s value, like that of Fahrenheit 9/11, lies in the aggregate of images and its style of delivery.

Director Morgan Spurlock uses a personal experiment - a month of McDonald’s for every meal - to show the dangerous and ridiculous effects of fast food on an average American.

His cavalier honesty gives the film a kind of empathy: Most of us have ridden the fat and sugar highs he talks at length about. I’d bet that many of us have also experienced the sickness, nausea, weight gain and worrisome blood work that he did.

Few of us do anything about it. The CDC says that two-thirds of Americans fit snugly in the overweight or obese categories.

The measure they use is weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared - the body mass index. My BMI, for example, is just over 20, or on the low end of the average range. A BMI of 25 to 29 qualifies for overweight, and one of 30 or more qualifies for obese.

Fast food isn’t the only culprit. Many of the best-selling supermarket items are packaged foods with high sugar, high sodium, high fat or all three. Foods that taste good but lack the best nutrition make up the majority of choices available to us.

The choice of foods, as an issue, outstrips class and economy in America. I volunteered for more than two years (2000-2003) at a food pantry, and a number of the “consumers” were overweight or obese. (They insisted we use the empowering term “consumer” for our patrons, a policy I never felt comfortable with.) Much of the food we had to give away came from the USDA, which Spurlock highlights in a school cafeteria scene. We filled out the grocery bags with high-sodium packaged foods, sugared cereals and desserts, and sent them on their caloried way.

Our attention seems directed away from health to focus on issues like who’s marrying whom, and who’s last on the island with the barrel of cash. Neither of those issues will kill us if we ignore it.

We have a nation of abundance. Changes to that basic fact of nature, with luck, lay far in the future. With that in mind, as a nation we need to focus on nurturing a little discipline when it comes to food.

I met a Halliburton contractor while waiting for a flight at Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta.

Recent bad publicity of Halliburton tends to overshadow the people - American people - working its contracts. This man had served 10 years in the army, from ‘78 to ‘88. In spring 2003, he left a family here and set off to work in Iraq.

I noticed his desert vest from the next table at a restaurant in the terminal. It was a faded brown, marked with his last name on the right breast and Arabic writing on the left side.

His cheese steak sandwich and fries arrived, and I couldn’t contain the questions.

“Are you a contractor?” I motioned to the vest.

He lofted a square pouch around his neck in a practiced answer. The slender envelope, clear on one side, bulged with credentials.

In between bites, he explained that he worked for Halliburton, and that he dealt in fuel supply management. (Ed. note: I did not note his name. This wasn’t an interview so much as an informal fact-finding mission for my own benefit.)

The management of the war topped my mind. He characterized it as a “clusterfuck,” but drew a fine line between organization and motivation. Though our forces, as the core of the “coalition of the willing,” clumsily tumbled a vicious dictator, he’s still gone. That’s a net gain for freedom.

His take on George W. Bush’s presidency took shape, I think, from his fourth-generation military family values. The President, this 50ish black man from the South told me, had made some mistakes. Those mistakes didn’t merit turfing him out of office - “changing planes in mid-flight,” he said.

He agreed that a Kerry administration would have to maintain the current course. There is no backward, only forward.

I asked about six months from now. He replied that I should ask about five years from now, and described beautiful palaces built in Kuwait from oil wealth. Iraq, he said, will model itself after Kuwait. Iraq, and other countries like it, have no alternative but to join the global economy, he said. Iraq’s new leaders have the choice now to join it on terms supported by Iraqis.

We chatted for about 45 minutes over a few drinks, and I went away feeling a bit less removed from events in Iraq. It’s helpful to get a direct account now and again.

I’m stepping off the orange crate for a few days for a badly needed vacation. I had wanted to finish one of a couple of thought-dump pieces in progress, but this hectic week wouldn’t hear of it.

So, in lieu of noggin-provoking prose, I give you a pair of random ideas.

Barbara Ehrenreich knows what she’s doing. I pulled Nickel and Dimed off the shelf yesterday, and plan to finish it with lake air in my lungs. Her writing spells out simplicity, and she doesn’t use words like “lugubrious.”

Combine two parts white vinegar, one part ammonia and one part dish soap to make a cheap spot cleaner for carpet and fabric. Whip it up with a wisk, and use the foam (not the liquid) with a damp sponge. Late-night PBS informs and enriches.

That’s it: a book tip and a household tip. I’m outta here.