"the device failed to calibrate laser power level for this media"

Well it would seem my drive is giving this issue. I have searched everything on the internet, I have tried the language swap method, putting compressed air into the drive. But nothing seems to help it. CD-R's are read, but when I go to burn I get that error message and yes, I am burning at the slowest speed possible. Now DVD-R's, when I put that into the drive it spins for a little and then spits it out. Cd's are read fine, and I can install from them. My last resort obviously is to take it into apple, I just wanted to see if there was any last thing I could do.

Have you tried a disc based cleaning disc? They actually clean the laser lens itself.
If that doesn't work then I would suggest that buying an external burner is going to be way cheaper than having Apple replace the drive (unless it's under warranty, in which case I'd just take it in anyway).