The Daily Show takes on the failed immigration bill with its typical irreverence. John Hodgman, resident expert on the Daily Show, does another one of his hard hitting exposes on why the immigration bill failed. Hodgman tells us that the debate over immigration is a public health issue...immigrants are bring leprosy and tuberculosis to the United States. Hodgman suggests that as leprosy spreads, Americans will lose more of their fingers...eventually ending up with hoof like appendages.

Not much I can say about this one...if you haven't heard the Eagles sing Hotel California, you've been pithed like a frog in science class...ouch (I can't believe we actually did that when I was in grade school)!

Anyway, I found these two video clips today and I had to post them. Enjoy.

I saw Elvis Perkins in Dearland for the first time on Late Night with David Letterman and I was instantly impressed. Perkins is the son of the late actor Anthony Perkins and Berry Berenson, who died on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11.

His songwriting is reflective of the tragedy that he has endured. His sound has been compared to Bob Dylan, David Gray, Neil Young, and Rufus Wainwright to name a few...all of which are appropriate comparisons.

The following video clip is Perkins performing the song While You Were Sleeping from the album titled Ash Wednesday. Both the vocals and the instrumentation are remarkable and the manner in which the sound is built in layers is noteworthy.

Ivri Lider is an Israeli singer songwriter who, following his success in Israel, has captured the attention of the gay world. His voice and music are ethereal and he sings about love and loss from a gay perspective. His song Jesse has all the making of a classic love song...one about the love one man has for another.

Jesse is included in a new compilation, Revolutions, released by Music With A Twist, a Sony/Columbia Music LGBT label. Lider's music is symbolic of the changing environment of gay culture and its acceptance and emergence into the mainstream.

No doubt Lider isn't the first artist to sing about love with someone of the same sex...but he may be one of the first to do so with the raw and vivid emotional imagery that has been seemingly reserved for songs about boys and girls.

I've included a second song, a cover or the classic The Man I Love. I would also recommend finding and listening to Offer Nissim's remix of Lider's cover of the Moody Blues classic Nights In White Satin...a blend of beautiful vocals, subtle and haunting electronics, and a great dance riff.

Cyndi Lauper is headlining True Colors, a concert tour to benefit the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group for LGBT rights. The following video is being aired during the tour and it is intended to make people aware of the need for hate crimes legislation. The Matthew Shepard Act would make hate crimes legislation a reality.

If you would like to support the effort, please go to the HRC site and use their "Take Action" feature to voice your support for the bill to your representatives in Washington.

The song Forever Young has always been one of my favorite songs...and one that has been covered by countless artists. The following three clips are three memorable performances of the song...Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Patti Labelle.

Let me know which one is your favorite and feel free to suggest other renditions and I'll see if I can hunt them down and post them here.

P.S. I chose this particular Patti Labelle version despite the fact that it was recorded live and she sings the last few bars of the song sans microphone. Her performance is just too good to overrule the recording quality.

Stephen Colbert takes on the nomination of James Holsinger to be the new Surgeon General in a new segment of the word titled "Pathophysiology"...a word in the title of a paper Holsinger wrote for the Methodist Church on homosexuality. In that report, Holsinger suggests that homosexuality is unnatural and leads to illness and disease.

Colbert concludes that gays should come with a warning label...something that probably makes more sense to Holsinger than any thoughtful person would care to know.

Thought Theater previously provided a tongue-in-cheek list of the top ten reasons George Bush nominated James Holsinger to be the Surgeon General...which can be found here.

Samantha Bee brings us another in depth expose...this time on whether Nascar is getting a little too gay. With Garnier Fructis sponsoring a car and offering free makeovers at the track, Samantha thinks Nascar is a little fruitier than we may have assumed.

I've always thought SNL's TV Funhouse was kind of a hit and miss segment...they're either really good or really bad...at least that's my opinion. I think the following clip is one of the good ones. Here's the set up...Oprah has all of the potential 2008 presidential candidates on her show and they are being given an opportunity to air their dirty laundry before the campaign moves into full swing. The tendency to exaggerate and the competitive nature takes over and they're quickly in the middle of what could only be characterized as a Jerry Springer episode.

Jon Stewart brings us all that's relevant with regard to the latest GOP presidential candidate debate. Stewart finds a few gems and deciphers the essence of the GOP message for viewers...with the wit and sarcasm that has become routine fare for The Daily Show. I especially enjoyed when Stewart gives Mitt Romney a vocabulary lesson on the use of the term "non sequitur".

Colbert takes on Michael Griffin, the head of NASA who has downplayed the impact of global warming...suggesting that it's arrogant for some inhabitants of the planet to presume that the current climate is the preferred climate. After all, residents of Colorado may prefer to be residents of a coastal state...yea, right...maybe NASA should conduct a poll?! Griffin has since apologized for airing his "personal" opinions on global warming. Whew, that makes me feel better...scientists who disagree with the concepts they are assigned to study tend to be the most objective.