Felon? Okay. Gay? Not in this army.

Last year, the Army took in more than double the number of recruits with felony convictions than it had the year before.

"The thing is, you've got to give people an opportunity to serve," said Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, the Army's operations chief, when asked about the [felony] waivers yesterday. "We are growing the Army fast, there are some waivers . . . it hasn't alarmed us yet."

But what does "alarm" them - where burglary, assault, sexual assault, and even manslaughter doesn't - is gays.

Despite the clear evidence of several countries in the shrinking "coalition of the willing" - Canada and the UK prominently - and other countries fighting alongside US troops in Afghanistan (such as Canada), the US still denies gays the "opportunity to serve" that it is now handing out to felons. Recruiting is in such straits that, as the Washington Post story went on to point out:

Waivers granted for felonies and other crimes constitute the majority of all waivers -- about 60 percent for the Army, and 75 percent for the Marine Corps. But other exceptions are also increasing, suggesting that the Army and Marine Corps are bringing in lower-quality recruits, according to Pentagon data and experts.

Army and Marine Corps waivers for medical problems -- such as being overweight -- increased last year. Medical waivers constituted about 30 percent of all Army waivers last year and 25 percent of those for the Marine Corps. Also, in recent years the Army has been accepting more recruits who are not high school graduates.

But the service goes on kicking gays out at thousands a year.

And it's not like these are all guys who make fresh starts and perform brilliantly:

A study last year by the Center for Naval Analyses tracked the attrition rates of Marines who enlisted with legal waivers between 2003 and 2005. It showed slightly higher boot camp attrition for those with serious or minor misdemeanor waivers, but somewhat lower attrition for those who committed felonies.

However, those with waivers were "quite a bit more likely" than other recruits to be separated from the service for misconduct within two years, and "recruits with felony waivers have the highest chance of a misconduct separation," it found.

And that's just the Corps. But gays who do their jobs - often important jobs like, say, Arabic translator or intelligence analyst - are kicked out.

Felons are okay. Gays are not.

It's insanity.

On Wednesday former assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb testified to Congress about the state of the armed services.

"First, repeal the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy," Korb said. "The Army and Marine Corps cannot afford to place unnecessary obstacles in the way of qualified men and women who want to serve." He went on to note that "over the past 10 years more than 10,000 personnel have been discharged as a result of this policy, including 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. These are the very job functions for which the military has experienced personnel shortfalls."

But such common-sense statements don't play in a Washington dominated by the anti-gay right, where the heady mix of fear and religion overcome reason. The military will continue to bar gays and welcome felons until we change our rulers.

And the fact that it's front-page news that "the opportunity to serve" is being extended to some, but calls to allow gays are buried in wire-service roundups, means this is one more issue the media doesn't even want to think about. Or help you think about, either.