Today’s exciting release of the long-awaited Pentagon report for the Secretary of Defense on the effects of repealing Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell will say that allowing gay and lesbian military servicemembers to serve openly would have little lasting impact on the U.S. armed forces.

Despite five terms in the Senate, this is how historians will likely memorialize McCain: the last great civil-rights filibusterer, in the sorry, backwards tradition of Strom Thurmond and Richard Russell.

The Palm Center, which has done heroic work to get Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell repealed, by studying and sharing how other countries’ militaries have succeeded with open service and by documenting the implications of DADT repeal, has a new website you might want to check out.

Well, the pro-”repeal” folks seem to have talked Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) into supporting their sham compromise, although they needed to add another step to the process to get his vote: a 60-day post-report review process to ensure Congress is happy with the certification provided by the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Lieberman sham compromise on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell cedes control of the military from the law-making and law-executing branches of government to the United States military. In effect, this law says open service is legal, but only when the military pleases.