Sounds like Durst is a celebrity worshipper. The fact is, Paris Hilton is paying for Paris Hilton's sins. If any of us pulled her stunts, we'd be in jail. Why should she be let off?

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Not a bad theory.

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i've said the same thing, that the only thing that makes this newsworthy at all is the fact that Americans are so sensitive to the development of an upper class that is above the law (coughBushCheneycough)...we can't do anything about Bush & Cheney but we can do something about this little squirt.

We're also a hollywood movie-driven culture, and in this "life" film, Paris is the spoiled rich kid-villain who gets away with everything. Of course, everyone cheers a series where the bad guy (gal) gets 'what's coming to them'. And, in all honesty, she really did...she had a lot of breaks.

The whole "my hard time in prison has changed me" schpeel? c'mon. now she's just playing to the suckers in the crowd. get real. i believe that like i believe she suddenly developed some strange mysterious medical illness requiring serious care.

drama queen. And who does the math for time spent in jail? Are days shorter in LA? Because that 45 days is looking a lot more like 2 weeks to me. And how do they figure "time off for good behavior" before the fact?

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Too many Americans fear the federal government, especially since 9/11. So, in the true American spirit, Paris is someone who can be kicked around without consequences. People are too afraid to "kick around" the government or the war in Iraq/Afghanistan or the war on drugs or the idiotic tax laws, on and on.......because their phones might get tapped or their mail opened before delivery or an income tax audit or a one-way ticket to some undisclosed prison. The US military picks on such mighty powers as Granada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan and the US public picks on Paris.
Just think if our news media covered politics in the same way as Hollywood???????? mmmmmmmm.........Maybe we need a paparazzi inside the beltway!

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Thanks for the fluff, Alternet.

This is number 4. Prepare for a running tab on your articles about Paris Hilton.

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I'll be the first person to admit that the entire Bush administration is corrupt to the core and that Bush, Cheney and Gonzales should all be impeached and that I'd love to see Bush and Cheney in neighboring cells at some nice supermax federal prison. As far as I'm concerned the whole lot of them including Libby are freaking traitors who put party before America.

But if you expect me to have sympathy for Paris Hilton you've got another thing coming. For reference my ire has only as much to do with the Bushies as it does to anyone who flaunts money power and connections in order to get out of punishment for bad behavior. If she'd pulled this nonsense back in the Cigar & Intern days of Bill Clinton I'd still be yelling for her ass to go back to prison. Her transgressions have nothing to do with the criminality of George W Bush or any of his cronies.

Paris Hilton plead no contest to the original driving while intoxicated. So, she admitted that she was wrong and presumably was sorry. So the judge gave her a break. He could have put her in jail right then and there. But he didn't. He gave her 36 months probation, which was more than fair. Then what did the poor little rich girl do? She violated her parole not once, but twice! Effectively spitting in the Judge's eye and flipping the bird to the legal system. If I had been judge I would have put her ass in Jail for the full 45 and then added another couple of weeks for contempt of court for both her and the Sheriff.

I don't know what planet a lot of these 'Free Paris' types are on but you don't get a break the second time around. If you violate parole, there are consequences. She did it twice. Then suddenly some pissant Sheriff ( effectively one step up from a meter maid ) who's job it is to transfer prisoners from court to prison and back as needed, decides on his own merit to let her out because she's claustrophobic and has ADD? That's bullshit! I didn't see any young black women who work at McDonalds getting out because they were claustrophobic. What the hell kinda punishment is it to spend 23 days in your big plush mansion with your servants and bodyguards waiting on you? Around my neck of the woods they'd call that an extended vacation, not a prison sentence.

Then the first thing she reportedly does is schedule a big 'I got out of jail party'. Yeah that sounds like someone who's really sorry for violating the law. I'm glad she finally 'decided' to just stop appealing and do the time. Even if she IS still getting preferential treatment in prison. Maybe this will have the effect of turning her into a real person instead of a caricature of a human being. But I kinda doubt it Narcissistic Personality Disorder isn't going to be cured so easily.

Why should I feel sorry for Hilton? When she gets out she'll still have millions, still have houses and cars out the ass and a million airhead fans who want to emulate her and her lack of any talent or redeemable qualities. 45 days in prison isn't going to change her or anything else in the slightest. People in America will still be poor and starving. People in Iraq will still be dying by the train load. Crooked politicians will still manage to wiggle out of their rightfully deserved punishments.

I will admit that the accountability and lack thereof of our FedGov is likely to play some roll in why people hate this woman so much. Can't get to Bush, so Paris is the next best thing. After OJ, Libby and others people are tired of rich, famous assholes who think that they are better than everyone else and are thus immune to consequences for their actions.

But her crime is her own as was her utter lack of consideration for the law. She dug her own grave.

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Why is it that every time a celebrity (or a sorry excuse for a celebrity) is held accountable for his/her crimes and misdemeanors, we have to hear a chorus, from both the right AND the left, of "Oooooh you only hate him/her because he/she is rich and privileged?"
I can understand Ann Coulter coming up with this sort of BS. Even Christopher Hitchens (but of course he'd be sympathetic to anyone who gets drunk on a regular basis). But here on Alternet? Enough already! Durst, you can do better. Can we stop talking of Paris Hilton and leave her to Jon Stewart to make fun of?

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...and read about true americans doing real american things! We could and probably will be next if we disagree with the powers that be.


http://www.save-a-patriot.org/brown/brown.html

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People don't hate Paris due to the deflection of emotions created by the Iraq War, inflation, the price of oil, Dubya and federal deficits.

Our hatred of Paris is part of the public's slow realization that the top 1% are sucking up all the gains from economic growth, that social gaps are widening, and that possibilities for social mobility are contracting.

Those realities have brought forth among us the likes of Paris Hilton -- one of the few members of that hated class who has invited everyone to stare into her most private moments, because she is addicted to being watched.

She wanted attention, we gave it to her.

Of course, kicking Paris has to do with kicking her class -- the top 1%. This is perfectly reasonable, given that she is quite squarely a member of that social class in every way.

She deserves to be jailed for drunk driving just like anyone else. We are glad to see one example of equal treatment of the rich before the law, all the more because these examples are so rare.

It's not wrong to be happy when someone in an unfairly-advantaged group is dealt with by the legal system in the same way peons and riffraff are dealt with by that system every day.

She has received justice; she doesn't like it; we do.

It's all good.

Jan VanDenBerg

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Folks the American public had nothing to do with Paris predicament. She pissed of a judge then her family's influence pissed off the judge. Now if you have ever watched Judge Judy you know you do not piss off the judge .Judge Judy cannot put anyone in jail but I bet that is the only thing she might not like about her TV job./But everyday Judges put the Pissers in the slammer. We the people gave them the authority. she failed to learn the lesson of repentance. If caught in the wrong you apologize and throw yourself on the mercy of the court, and as in real life it seldom works .Scooter Libby might have done himself some good if he had tried this technique, when wrong or be convicted and not admit guilt is the best way to assure yourself some jail time. Now you do not have to mean it ,but at least appear to be sorry. Sincerity is seldom measured.

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It is completely acceptable to speak of something that affects so many people so strongly. The key element is how the issue is framed. In this case it is not about her, but more about you, who are either reading with interest, or having a rage.
Few commentators I've read combine the subtlety and accuracy of Will Durst and make me explode in laughter at the same time. This is the first time that I choose to read anything about the bimbo, and I wasn't disappointed.
Critical thinking anybody? And that, by the way, includes not taking oneself so seriously...

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