Know this: the history of the United States is one of immigration outside the bounds of law. Every significant immigrant population in our history (from the Irish, the Italians, Eastern Europeans and Scandinavians to the Chineese, Koreans and Filipinos) have always had substantial "without papers" elements.

It's the most American thing in the world.

"Si se Puede!" goes the chant. "It can be done!" This is the American spirit. This is who we are as a nation. We're about striving, ambition, optimism, the "can do" attitude. This is what has made this country so successful: hard work, competition, meritocracy, and a willingness to take risks and embrace change.

We are the way we are in no small part because most of us (descendants of slaves and those on the Rez excepted) are here because somewhere back in our family history, someone decided to take an enormous leap. Many of our ancestors did not go through the bureaucracy and red tape of acquiring paperwork to make this process "legal."

This is important! It's good! People who make this leap, who are willing to grab life by the horns and make it happen, are the lifeblood of this country. They are inventive. They are entrepreneurial. They hustle. They do what needs to be done to make a better world for their children, infusing the economy and culture with energy.

This has always been how it worked, and it's no secret that this a large part of why America has worked as well. We also got a big statue as a present from France for our rockin' immigrant-loving ways. It's pretty nice.

It's not all wine and roses of course. Immigration is an essential part of what the US is, but it has always created problems, especially on the local level. It places strain on communities and creates change, which inevitably some people dislike.

However, our historical legacy has been to work hard on solving these problems so that we can grow and prosper as a greater whole. It's a part of our history we can be damn proud of, and one we turn away from at our peril.

I hope that people can see the current immigration hoopla for what it is: an election-year tactic cooked up by a corrupt and unpopular Republican congress looking to save their sorry asses in November. The nativists are on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of the facts as well.

Bush's new director of the CIA, Porter Goss, just quit.

My guess is he's balls-deep in a growing scandal -- a whole other animal than the CIA Leak or Abramoff business -- involving crooked defense contracts, congressional bribes, and even.... wait for it... hookers.

This scandal took down SoCal congressman Duke Cunningham a little while ago -- he's spending eight years in jail, longest sentence ever for a congresscritter -- and it's been building steam since then. Apparently this cat Brent Wilkes has been directiing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense contracts through traditional lobbying, straight-up bribery, and apparently gettin' hard-up representatives some poon.

In a lovely twist, the limousine company owner who supplied the pros to the WaterGate hotel "hospitality suites" (and who also has a lengthy rap sheet), got more than $20M in Homeland Security contracts. What a wonderful cycle!

All this is small potatoes profiteering compared to Haliburton or the billions that the Pentagon just doesn't know what it did with, but it's proably more politically explosive because there's snatch involved. With 45% of self-described conservatives already upset with Bush and the GOP, this is likely to hurt them further, as it's harder to run on "traditional values" when your colleagues are getting busted for sleeping with pros.

And you know how that town loves to have a freakout over sex. Gonna be a long hot summer.

In the torrentfeed, yo.

JUST HOOK IT TO MY VEINS!

This summer, I plan to try to make some Biodiesel. First will be the quick/standard vegitable-oil extraction (which is super easy), but what I really want to get into is algae.

What I'll need to figure out is how to extract oil from algae. There have been methods for doing this since 1879, but I'm not sure if solvent-based extractions will really work. It's kinda expensive, dirty, and really aimed at small batches.

I have yet to find any information on larger-scale extraction, but I'll keep looking. Maybe I could build a centrifuge...

Just watching some Law and Order CI while I eat my burrito... Donofrio is the MF man. His character work is damn tight. He's also real good in The Salton Sea as a brain-scrambled drug-lord, and in Steal This Movie as Abbie Hoffman.

Does anyone else find this Pussycat Dolls/Heinekien "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" song reminding them of the one and only Sir Mix-a-Lot? Because I for one certainly remember the chorus "Don't you wish your boyfriend was swaas like me?"

One hopes that in amongst whatever else he's got in his Funky Pad, Mix has some royalties coming in from this.

Does anyone else find this Pussycat Dolls/Heinekien "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" song reminding them of the one and only Sir Mix-a-Lot? Because I for one certainly remember the chorus "Don't you wish your boyfriend was swaas like me?"

One hopes that in amongst whatever else he's got in his Funky Pad, Mix has some royalties coming in from this.

Protecting a competitive marketplace:

When, seventeen years ago, I designed the Web, I did not have to ask anyone’s permission. The new application rolled out over the existing Internet without modifying it. I tried then, and many people still work very hard still, to make the Web technology, in turn, a universal, neutral, platform... The Internet is increasingly becoming the dominant medium binding us. The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy.

He did really, in fact, design the web. So listen up.

I'd go a step further and posit that in the 21st Century, the 1st Amendment would be (to use a phalocentric term) castrated without Network Neutrality.

What do I mean? Well, think about it: we don't need a right to speech because it makes us feel good to speak our minds. We need the right to speech becuase puts power in the hands of citizens. It's not just about preventing thought police, it's about letting people freely communicate, organize and assemble, all of which help balance power between human beings and institutions.

Currently, a narrow definition of the "right to speak" means you're free to be a crackpot on the street corner, or perhaps to protest in a "free speech cage zone," or to chat with your friends in person, or (if you've got the dough) spend your money to create a media outlet and/or contribute to a politician's re-election fund.

That's not a very empowering paradigm for citizens.

Lately that's been changing, and the effects are good overall, I think. The trends, at the very least, are encouraging. However, without Network Neutrality, we all fork over our right to communication online -- the most empowering type of speech -- to the whims of Verizon.

Not a good idea.

Protecting a competitive marketplace:

When, seventeen years ago, I designed the Web, I did not have to ask anyone’s permission. The new application rolled out over the existing Internet without modifying it. I tried then, and many people still work very hard still, to make the Web technology, in turn, a universal, neutral, platform... The Internet is increasingly becoming the dominant medium binding us. The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy.

He did really, in fact, design the web. So listen up.

I'd go a step further and posit that in the 21st Century, the 1st Amendment would be (to use a phalocentric term) castrated without Network Neutrality.

What do I mean? Well, think about it: we don't need a right to speech because it makes us feel good to speak our minds. We need the right to speech becuase puts power in the hands of citizens. It's not just about preventing thought police, it's about letting people freely communicate, organize and assemble, all of which help balance power between human beings and institutions.

Currently, a narrow definition of the "right to speak" means you're free to be a crackpot on the street corner, or perhaps to protest in a "free speech cage zone," or to chat with your friends in person, or (if you've got the dough) spend your money to create a media outlet and/or contribute to a politician's re-election fund.

That's not a very empowering paradigm for citizens.

Lately that's been changing, and the effects are good overall, I think. The trends, at the very least, are encouraging. However, without Network Neutrality, we all fork over our right to communication online -- the most empowering type of speech -- to the whims of Verizon.

Not a good idea.

blog.myspace.com/papescape

Everybody has a freaky side, but it is a mere shadow of what it truly means to be a freak. A freak will never yield to becoming a lady, and a lady will never yield to becoming a freak. Again, another quote were all familiar with "you cant turn a ho into a housewife," but they both serve a purpose. You can have a housewife act like a ho, but very soon your nights of minage a tois, handcuffs, adult toys, porns, anal sex etc will very quickly be extinguished. You can have a ho act like a housewife, but she wont be cleaning your dishes for very long.

We've, uh, got a long way to go.