Counterpunch is a journalistic lifeline in these times when all the mainstream media is some variation on Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert, the White House correspondent who turned out to be a gay hooker specializing in military scenes. *Real* journalists were outraged at Gannon’s rare high-level access and soft-ball questions for our soft-headed Prezzy at White House press conferences. Okay, so maybe said *real* journalists didn’t spend so many mysterious overnights at the White House as Gannon did. But they’ve been doing so much kissing ass and sucking up to the criminal Bushniks, they might as well have.

Publishers Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair are brilliant analysts of the sordid state of American Empire, and Alex’s bro Patrick Cockburn does the very best, most uncompromised, unembedded reporting on Iraq. I like Alex’s round-up of the main political events of 2005 so much that I’m not going to bother to do one myself. As long as you’re on their site, check out Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize Lecture. I remember acting in Pinter plays (The Homecoming, The Birthday Party) when I was a Theater major at Yale. He was de rigeur then, and he is even more so now.