James Gordon Meek may have a name Dickens might have thought up. In real life he pens the always informative, often witty "Mouth of the Potomac" blog for the New York Daily News.

Meek's laughs don't come from jokes, unless you count the can-you-believe-this material he digs up day after day.

Take this item today on Sarah Palin.   (I know -- it's like shooting salmon in a basket.)

Meek followed up Palin's remarks to Katie Couric about guarding Alaskan air space from the Russians by touching base with  a spokesman for the Alaska North American Aerospace Defense Command,

"She doesn't have any role in that process," Air Force Maj. Allen Herritage told Meek.

"The authority to launch and respond to a Russian incursion lies with the Alaska NORAD Region commander" -- Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, he said.