It’s still unknown whether NASA will honor the people’s wishes and actually name the new part of their space station after Stephen Colbert. Colbert lead in the online poll by hundreds of thousands of votes, but even as voting ended on Friday, NASA still didn’t acknowledge it. Perhaps they’re just waiting to announce it on The Colbert Report? That would be just one more amazing move for Colbert, who has had everything from an eagle, a spider, an elephant seal, a falcon, a bridge, a turtle, a park, a mascot, a plane and a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor named after him.

This latest cute story is about one of those namesakes. In 2007, the San Jose City Hall staff installed a “falcon cam” to monitor the falcons who nest atop the San Jose City Hall. At first, they were monitoring a falcon named Clara and her lover Jose Fernando. Previously, Clara was with Carlos, until he flew the coop last year. After that, Clara was being wooed by a new man.

The residents of San Jose decided to name Clara’s new falcon partner “Esteban Colbert”. Esteban and Clara have a real love connection, and Clara just laid her fourth egg of the 2009 falcon season. So there’s good news in the Colbert household this week – Stephen Colbert just became the proud grandfather to a fourth falcon grandchild! MSNBC has more:

Faux TV-News anchor Stephen Colbert can crow about a fourth grandchild that has been appeared atop San Jose City Hall.

Sometime between noon and 2:40 p.m. on Thursday, San Jose City Hall’s falcon mom Clara laid her fourth egg of the 2009 falcon season.

The father? A prolific dad named after Colbert.

South Bay falcon fans dubbed the newest male peregrine falcon living atop San Jose City Hall “Esteban Colbert” after the star of “The Colbert Report.”

The San Jose City Hall Peregrine Falcons became reality show superstars more than two years ago when staff opened up the birds’ rooftop nesting box to worldwide viewers of the FalconCam.

In the third “season” of her ongoing reality show, falcon mother Clara hooked up with Esteban.

Clara has quite a history with the males.

As it became apparent that last year’s tiercel (male falcon) Carlos was not returning for a second season, falcon fans have been watching the FalconCam to see if a new beau would attempt to woo Clara.

Colbert’s namesake fit the bill.

Clara had three chicks in 2008 with a male named Carlos, while the previous year she and her first mate Jose Fernando had three as well.

Peregrine Falcons, regarded as the fastest animal in the world with a recorded speed of up to 240 mph, had only two mating pairs remaining in the California wild in 1970.

Today, due in large part to extraordinary conservation work by the UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, there are more than 250 nesting pairs, including those at San Jose City Hall.

The FalconCam can be viewed online on the City of San Jose Web site or on the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group Web site.

[From MSNBC]

I just thought this was a cute story, and you know Colbert will love all of his falcon grandbabies equally. Esteban has done his “dad” proud!

Last week, Colbert announced that he (and The Colbert Report) had been invited to entertain the troops through the USO. No one’s said “Iraq” yet, I suppose because they don’t want to announce Colbert’s whereabouts in advance. Still, Iraq is my bet. I don’t see Colbert traveling all that way just to do four shows in Kuwait.

According to All Headline News, “Colbert will showcase an exclusive behind-the-scenes making of “The Colbert Report.” As if the funny man’s visit will not be landmark enough, the telecast will be the “first show in USO history to film multiple episodes in a combat zone,” according a press release posted on the USO website. When Colbert announced his trip, he joked, “I’m taking my show to the Persian Gulf. If there was any hope of peace in the Middle East, you can forget it now.”