Fireworks on Fox News this morning thanks to the guest pairing of Howard Dean and Newt Gingrich. In the aftermath of the Shirley Sherrod firing it’s interesting to see what fingers are pointing where. Howard Dean’s are pointing directly at Fox News, who he called “absolutely racist” in their coverage of Sherrod.

Do you ever wonder why it’s always that one conservative aunt that forwards you those chain emails about Barack Obama‘s secret plot to turn America into a socialist utopia? Salon‘s perusal of internet rumors in the last decade shows that conservatives are both more likely to spread false rumors about liberals via fowarded emails that liberals are about their opponents.

The Snowpocalypse has given skeptics a reason to dance on the frozen grave of climate change, from Sean Hannity to Matt Drudge to Senator Jim Inhofe‘s grandkids. Needless to say, it is driving the greener-than-thou community and the scientists who actually study this material crazy. Case in point: former DNC chair Howard Dean on ABC News last night expressing complete loss of belief in the legitimacy of Republican global warming detractors and claiming they simply “don’t believe in science.”

At about 1 a.m. this morning, Senate Democrats prevailed in a procedural vote that moved the health reform bill towards final passage this week. But on the eve of that vote, former DNC Chairman Howard Dean continued in his high-profile criticism of the bill from the left. Speaking on Meet the Press, Dean said that he “would certainly not vote for this bill if this were the final product:”

This year’s Netroots Nation, the annual gathering of of progressive bloggers launched in 2006, was different: The president from the party they fought to elect — President Barack Obama, a Democrat — is in power, and they no longer represent the voice of the opposition.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t have any.

Since Obama was elected, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has positioned himself at the heart of the national debate over health care, arguing from a pro-business, anti-public option vantage. He’s written countless op-eds, blogged, Twittered, given newspaper interviews, and made the rounds on political talk shows, most recently This Week with George Stephanopoulos and The O’Reilly Factor, to promote his platform.

Howard Dean appeared as a guest on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning – his fifth appearance on the network this month.

But tomorrow he’ll add a new, interesting bullet point to his resume: he’s guest hosting Countdown with Keith Olbermann. How did he get to this point?

As a guy who has had to have five eye operations, that even if I get health insurance, I am pretty much screwed if I ever need to get health care. I would most likely be personally bankrupt right now if I had been an American. Perhaps I should have mentioned that to Howard Dean in the Today show green room.