So much for justice.
The former college student who in 2008 allegedly hacked into a Yahoo e-mail account used by Sarah Palin -- then governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate -- goes on trial today in Tennessee and of this much you can be certain: The case will be more of a media and political circus than groundbreaking legal proceeding...
...Convictions on all four felony charges - identity theft, wire fraud, intentionally accessing Palin's e-mail account without authorization and obstructing an FBI investigation - could send Kernell to prison for up to 50 years.
"If I was the individual being charged I would be concerned, particularly the other party," East Tennessee State University political analyst David Briley said. "Politics and religion are pretty close to the vest here."
Translation: Kernell is the son of a longtime Democratic lawmaker in a state that is red enough to have helped deny native son Al Gore the presidency in 2000.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/60289David Kernell accessed the email account of a high profile politician stupid enough to leave her security questions so obvious than anyone could guess them. He faces 50 years in prison.
NEW ORLEANS – Joseph Basel, age 24, Stan Dai, age 24, Robert Flanagan, age 24, and James O’Keefe, age 25, were charged in a one-count bill of information with entering real property of the United States under false pretenses, a misdemeanor, announced the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
According to the Bill of Information, between January 20, 2010, and January 25, 2010, Flanagan, Basel, O’Keefe, and Dai met on several occasions. During their meetings, they discussed, among other things, possible scenarios in which they would talk with members of the staff of Senator Mary Landrieu inside of her New Orleans, Louisiana office, in the Hale Boggs Federal Building, and record the interaction using audio and visual equipment. As a result of this planning, on January 25, 2010, Basel and Flanagan entered the Senator’s office dressed as telephone repairmen, said they were following up on reports of problems with the telephone system, engaged in conversation with the staff members, and pretended to test the phone system. O’Keefe, who had also entered the office, recorded the interaction between Basel, Flanagan, and the staff members.
If convicted, Flanagan, Basel, O’Keefe, and Dai each face a maximum term of six (6) months in prison and a fine of $5,000.
http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/03/26/msnbc-presents-watergate-jr-coming-to-lackluster-end-okeefe-cohorts-charges-reduced-to-misdemeanor/O'Keefe, the wannabe Junior Deep throat of the 21st Century impersonated officials working for a telephone company in an attempt to tap the phones of a Democratic Senator in her Congressional Office. HE already used lies and media manipulation to bring down ACORN, whose only crime was its support for helping the poor and under-privileged secure housing and their voting rights, a sin to modern day Republicans.
So a far worse crime means that Fox News portrays them as heroes, right wing web sites stump up the cash and lawyers for his trial and he and his extremist friends are able to plea bargain a misdemeanour.
Something is very seriously wrong here.