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I missed it, but apparently Arlen Specter held a townhall meeting today that was on all the cable channels and was a near riot. Anyone see it?

Update: “Health Care Protesters Largely From Out Of District, Sign-In Sheets Show”

Also,

MSNBC cameras found a man with a gun in the crowd waiting for the town hall meeting with President Obama later today. He’s carrying a sign saying “It’s time to water the tree of liberty.” I assume the Secret Service has been notified.

The latest on Kenneth Gladney, the alleged anti-health reform activist who allegedly was assaulted is that the allegations he has no health insurance were not true, according to the Right. The rightie blogger Gateway Pundit sets the record straight by refuting the Left’s allegations.

However, I haven’t heard some of these allegations, and I say they are alleged allegations. For example, I have not personally seen anyone claim that Gladney was “hired” to incite the attack. Maybe somebody alleged that, but on the Web you can find allegations of just about anything.

Gateway also takes umbrage at the allegation that Gladney was “recently laid off.” No, Gateway says, he is unemployed. Um, actually, “recently laid off” sounds better. It’s a common euphemism for “unemployed.”

And the allegation that Gladney has no health insurance is not true either, Gateway says. He is insured by his wife’s employee benefits, allegedly. Which begs the question, then why did he allegedly need to ask for donations to pay for his health care?

I’m guessing Gladney must have one of those “freedom” health insurance policies that Shawn Tully wrote about in Fortune, as described in item one, “The Freedom to Choose What’s in Your Plan.” This means that if your state doesn’t deprive you of your freedom by mandating that insurance policies provide comprehensive coverage, you are free to buy a junk policy that doesn’t cover anything you might actually need paid for.

For example, today we hear about Sarah Wildman, whose blessing of liberty include a six-month old daughter and a $22,000 medical bill for allegedly giving birth to her.

Birthing our daughter was so expensive precisely because we were insured, on the individual market. Our insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, sold us exactly the type of flawed policy—riddled with holes and exceptions—that the health care reform bills in Congress should try to do away with. The “maternity” coverage we purchased didn’t cover my labor, delivery, or hospital stay. It was a sham. And so we spent the first months of her life getting the kind of hospital bills and increasingly aggressive calls from hospital administrators that I once believed were only possible without insurance.

Some people might argue that having to settle for a “junk” policy isn’t really freedom, because in some states that’s the only kind of private insurance policy most people can get. But no patriotic American talks like that. As long as it’s the free and unregulated market that determines you have to settle for a junk policy, and not the government, then Americans are still free. In most other countries people are forced to have their medical bills paid for by the government. And that means taxes. It’s so much more free to be stuck with a $22,000 medical bill than to have to pay a dime in taxes. Right?

But I digress. Let us return to the trials of Mr. Gladney. I have watched the video in which he is allegedly beaten to a pulp by Union thugs, and frankly I can’t make out who is doing what to whom in it. Beside the lady in the SEIU shirt who was walking laboriously with a cane, whom I allegedly saw in the video, another individual whom Gateway says is in the film is a terrifying Union thug and Baptist minister named Elston McCowan (see photo).

The Rev. McCowan alleges that Mr. Gladney attacked him and dislocated his shoulder. But Gateway says this is absurd. I assume Gateway has inside information he is not sharing with the public, because neither the video nor news reports of the incident clearly reveal what happened. There are just a lot of allegations flying around, from what I see. But Gateway alleges he has truth on his side, and the Rev. McCowan must be lying. Because. OK.

Gateway also repeats allegations that a woman was smashed in the face, but exactly what he is referring to isn’t clear. This seems to be a fact the right blogosphere is sharing with itself that the evil mainstream media and YouTube are suppressing. Allegedly.

[Update: I see now the face smashing incident is in a separate video, which can be viewed here. I can’t make out what’s happening in it, either, but from the voices somebody did hit somebody. Again, I do not condone hitting people, whether with cameras or cell phones or anything else, nor do I think it’s OK for “my” people to hit “their” people. However, I lack the moral clarity of most righties, who understand that all evil emanates from the Left, and if anyone on the Right does something violent, it is justified.]

Gateway goes on to assure us that the video shows Gladney being attacked by three Union thugs and a woman being smashed in the face, and I will have to take his word for that because I can’t tell what’s going on in the bleeping video. There is a lot of anger and some physical aggression, which I do not condone, no matter who is responsible. And I will take Gateway’s word that Mr. Gladney spent a night in the hospital and has real injuries, and I wish him a speedy recovery. I also wish the Rev. McGowan a speedy recovery for his alleged dislocated shoulder.