The military thinks gays are not as good as convicted criminals.

Really, what other conclusion is there?

Every year, between 700 and 1200 men and women are removed from the military because of so-called adherence to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

According to the MSNBC article,

Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

What is interesting about this is that this is less than or near the total number of yearly anti-gay dismissals in the military.

What morality is this?  The DADT policy says in effect that gay people have to lie to remain in the service.  And now the military is admitting convicted criminals to make up for a shortfall in recruitment?

And, if some people want to say that the military is obligated to dismiss (and not admit) openly gay and lesbian people, remember that the other part of DADT (which is seldom mentioned is the left-out DP (don't pursue) part.  There are many stories of gay people being discovered on web sites, where they did not intentionally disclose their identity, and otherwise subjected to witch hunts.

Oh, what tangled webs we weave, when people decide to get high and mighty about sexual morality.