Yo, Ron, What's Your Top Halo Level?!

G4TV's interview with Internet sensation du jour Congressman Ron Paul makes Michael Arrington's podcasts with presidential candidates seem like sober discussions with Jim Lehrer.

Paul talks censorship, Internet taxes and Net Neutrality among other topics. (Hat tip to Tech Liberation Front).

And, btw, the TechCrunch interview with McCain is pretty interesting and, on one particular note, depressing. Specifically, McCain talks of his support for H-1B visas, but basically says that the American people have spoken and they want their "borders secure" whether this means making the US less competitive or not... Excerpt after the jump...

MA: H-1B visas. We like them here in Silicon Valley. It brings the best and brightest here. And, the government for some reason brought back the quota to 65,000 a year the last two years, and I think there’s demand for at least 150,000 or 200,000 a year. What are your feelings on H-1Bs?

JM: I’ve always supported H-1B visas, and it’s been a source of much needed talent because of our lack in America of students in math, science, and engineering, but, I got to tell you, I’ve got to give you some straight talk, my friend. We failed on overall immigration reform. We failed. We failed, and expansion of H-1Bs was part of it. All of it failed because Americans have no trust in their government. Look, here’s the message I got from our failure: Americans want the borders secured. They want the borders secured first. I got the lesson. So, we’ve got to restore the trust in the government, and we’ve got to secure the borders. I will continue to support H-1B visas, but, I’m telling you, the American people’s priority is, either rightly or wrongly, and we live in a democracy, is that we secure the borders first.

MA: But isn’t the H-1B program almost collateral damage in the drive to secure the borders? We’re talking about people with college or higher-level degree, educated, very entrepreneurial, often. They come here and work for I think seven years. That’s a different issue than illegal aliens streaming across the border. It’s just a completely separate issue.

JM: Well, except that don’t you think that the agricultural sector in America is an innocent bystander, too? We’re going see lettuce rot in Yuma. We’re seeing melons not being harvested in California. The agricultural sector is hurting as well. So, yes, I think they’re collateral damage, and I’m sorry about it, and I worked for three years to try to get a comprehensive approach to immigration which included, of course H-1B visas, and a number of other aspects of trying to get highly skilled workers into America. But, I’m telling you, it was rejected, and it was rejected by the majority of the American people. We can still go onto it, but they have to be confident that our borders are secure.

MA: So you’re saying the H-1B program can’t be taken on its own, it has to be looked at as part of the larger picture, mostly be cause the US population demands that?

JM: Well, we live in a democracy. The will of the people prevails. Sometimes in our history the will of people hasn’t been good for America. Democracy is the worst form of government, only a better one hasn’t been invented, as Mr. Churchill said. I want H-1B visas. I want highly skilled workers. I want all those things. But, the American people are saying, in the messages, secure our borders, because they have no trust or confidence in government. Because in 1986 we said we would secure the borders, and we gave amnesty to a couple million people. And, guess what, we gave the amnesty, we didn’t secure the borders, and we’ve got 12 million people here illegally. And you and I know that 40% of the people who are here illegally, are illegal because their visas have expired, and not because they crossed the border. But, I’m telling you, I’ve gone the width and breadth of this country, and I’ve been involved in the most bitter debate and discussion I’ve been involved in on any issue in twenty-four years in the United States Congress, and I’m telling you, people want the borders secured.