Kernell sentencing set for November 12

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The son of state legislator Mike Kernell (D-TN) who was convicted of breaking into Gov. Palin's email account wants a federal judge to grant him probation rather than send him to prison for his crimes at his sentencing hearing next month:

David C. Kernell's request for a downward departure comes six months after a federal jury found him guilty of felony obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor count of unauthorized access to a computer. The same jury acquitted Kernell on a felony charge of wire fraud and deadlocked on a charge of identity theft.

The conviction carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing guidelines in the case recommend that Kernell receive 15 to 21 months in prison, and the government has asked for 18 months. Sentencing is scheduled for November 12.

In a memorandum filed on Tuesday, Kernell's attorneys argued that although their client deleted some computer files after accessing Palin's account, he should not go to prison because he allowed much of the data to be preserved.

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In a sentencing memorandum filed on Wednesday, federal prosecutors outlined a series of steps Kernell took following the hack to cover his tracks. They included the deleting of images and emails he downloaded from Palin's account, the removal of temporary internet files, and running a disk defragmenter.

[More]

- JP

Reagan to Palin: Mittwits trying to torpedo Sarah

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Reagan to Palin catches the Mittwits in full attack mode trying to torpedo Governor Palin:

According to TIME MAGAZINE Romney staff had this to say about Governor Palin and the 2012 Presidential campaign:

One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, “She’s not a serious human being.” Another Romney intimate warns, “If she’s standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she’s in trouble.”

The article also quoted another unnamed Republican leader (who may or may not actually exist) as noted here in TIME’s words:

One of the most experienced Republican national political operatives in the country suggests that while Palin might be envied and sleek, she lacks the endurance required for a protracted nomination fight. “She’s like a cheetah. She can run really fast, but not really long.”

Once again the ROMNEY folks and the alleged experts have it wrong.

RomneyCare, the Massachusetts health care plan that Mitt Romney signed into law, is a major problem for the Romney campaign, and they know it, the blogger says . RomneyCare and the widely unpopular ObamaCare have much in common -- too much for an electorate fed up with grand statist schemes while the American economy risks being buried under a mountain of debt. Sarah Palin has been in the vanguard of the opposition to ObamaCare, but Romney, because of he has been a facilitator of government-mandated medicine, can't speak up on the issue without appearing like a hypocrite. Any Romney criticism of ObamaCare only serves to reinforce the former Massachusetts governor's image as a flip-flopper.

But this hasn't stopped the Mittwits from attacking the campaigns of potential rivals for a Romney run at the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Romney staffers have picked up where they left off in 2007, hitting their Republican opponents below the belt. Some even went so far as to astroturf the Thompson campaign with a despicable website titled Phoney Fred.

Expect more quotes, many of them given anonymously, from Romney's team attacking Sarah Palin as 2012 draws nearer. Unfortunately, we can also expect more dirty tricks in the same vein as the Phoney Fred website to be employed by Mitt's forces against Gov. Palin, only this time they will be more careful to conceal the connections of such loathsome ventures to Team Romney. The more desperate the Mittwits get, the more vicious will be their attacks.

The full Reagan to Palin post is here.

- JP