accesing socket at a lower level?

[Z 3 Penguin]

I am working on writing python code to access the AIM servers.  i have been
looking at what my code sends out, and using something like

from socket import +ACo-
s+AD0-socket(AF+AF8-INET,SOCK+AF8-STREAM)
s.send(whateverstring)

tacks on some extra bytes at the beggining.  this confuses the AIM servers.
Any ideas? (Note: I am not good with C and am against having to write this
in C)
-Penguin

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Z 3 Penguin
Antarctica
z3p+AEA-penguinpowered.com

+ACI-You make yourself tougher by whatever means you can, and then you strike by
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-Bean