More shots of graffiti from around the San Francisco Amoeba Music on Haight Street - including some pics from directly across the street from Amoeba.

Have you ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested? In other words: have you ever done something illegal (anything at all) but never gotten caught for it?  If so and you are a legal resident applying for US citizenship you legally must admit all details of your crime, and essentially turn yourself in. The direct question is part of the US government's current INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services) form for permanent residents, here in the USA for over five years, who are applying for US citizenship. The form in question is the N-400 INS Application for Naturalization ten page questionnaire. It must be accompanied by a money order for approx $400  a fee that is scheduled to increase substantially by the end of this month when it's raised to $675. As a result there's been a significant surge in the number of applicants at INS offices around the US trying to get the application process rolling by the July 30th cutoff date for the lower application fees.  NOTE: Due to the huge rush on INS offices, the same day this AMOEBLOG was posted the date for the new rates was extended until August 17th.

But the fee increase is only one reason for the rush. The other reasons are more serious and are rooted in the new post 9/11 America - where race profiling has become more common a practice and border crossing has gotten increasingly more difficult for non-Americans - even if they are US "residents' or Green Card holders. More importantly the consequences of the possible new immigration laws means that many immigrants, especially Mexican, whose status is currently "Alien" figure that now is the time to up their status and try to become US citizens. 

This is the second part in the ongoing series of San Francisco and Bay Area rave fliers from the 1990's - mainly early nineties like the ones below that include 1993 and 1994.



   

It's a long time since her last big hit. Six weeks or even more - a long time in this digital age - when Obama Girl arrived via YouTube with her sexy video "I've Got A Crush On Obama" that, while not endorsed by Sentor Barack Obama's office, it wasn't unappreciated by any means. The sexy pro-Obama video got 2.3 million YouTube hits. That's way more than any Billboard hit single sells these days. It's also some of the cheapest publicity a presidential candidate can get. The new video, which debuted on YouTube just yesterday has, as of noon today (7/17), received about 160,000 hits, and looks well set to gain as many viewers as its predecessor - or likely even more. Especially since the new vid ups the ante both in content and controversy: this time taking on rival Rudy Giuliani. The new video, seen below, is entitled "Debate '08: Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl"  and features model Adelna Kristina playing  Giuliani Girl part opposite Amber Lee Ettinger and her crew representing Obama.