and several years suspended release. Like Love, defendant Carpenter argued that contempt should be classified based upon the sentence actually imposed; because Carpenter’s contempt violation would have been a “petty” offense under this approach, he argued, like Love, that the court was not authorized to impose supervised release at all. Id. at 1283. The government advanced in Carpenter the same argument it raises before this Court — namely, that all criminal con-tempts are Class A felonies by virtue of the fact that no maximum penalty is indicated by statute. Id. at 1284. The Carpenter Court rejected both positions, however, holding that criminal contempt should be classified for sentencing according to the applicable Guidelines range for the most nearly analogous offense. Id. at 1285 (<HOLDING>). With regard to the government’s argument, the
holding that despite the advisory nature of the sentencing guidelines they remain the starting point and the initial benchmark of a district courts sentencing analysis the district court should begin all sentencing proceedings by correctly calculating the applicable guidelines range and keep that range in mind throughout the sentencing process and that failing to calculate or improperly calculating the guidelines range  or failing to adequately explain the chosen sentenceemdashincluding an explanation for any deviation from the guidelines range constitutes significant procedural error  holding that no person may be imprisoned for any offense whether classified as petty misdemeanor or felony unless he was represented by counsel at his trial holding that where the guidelines range was six to 12 months for the underlying offense the contempt should be classified as a class a misdemeanor holding contempt should be classified for sentencing purposes according to the applicable guidelines range for the most nearly analogous offense holding that a felony drug offense is an offense punishable by more than one year as defined in 21 usc  80244 2000 regardless of whether the state of conviction classified the particular offense as a misdemeanor or felony