'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Repeal Goes Into Effect, Apparently?

Wait, what? It finally happened? "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is officially over today and is now and forever just one of America's most cherished, tender Clinton-era memories (right up there with the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Robert Rubin's banking deregulation spree). Yep, today! Started at midnight! You'd have hardly noticed -- where is the screaming? The tantrums? The teeth-gnashing and gay panic from Republicans hollering in whiny, pitched voices? That is usually the only way we find out about these "gays in the military" things, when the Republicans make a fuss, because this entire issue of the DADT repeal is uncontroversial to the nearly 8 in 10 Americans who support the repeal, and it has been that way for a while. Still -- no tortured, righteous comments about "distraction" from Lindsey Graham's Twitter, even?

Nope. Nothing on RedState, nothing on National Review, nothing from any of the GOP presidential candidates. Even "gay panic" bellwether comedy site FoxNews.com just ran this boring old column by an actual accredited psychologist explaining why it is not a big deal. Enjoy the brief silence, communists/ we will mourn, for comedy.

SO THE GAYS WIN TODAY! Good. Here's a nice block quote from the AP story:  

Gay advocacy groups planned a series of celebrations across the country.

At a San Diego bar, current and former troops danced and counted down to midnight. "You are all heroes," Sean Sala, a former Navy operations specialist, said. "The days of your faces being blacked out on the news — no more."

The head of Pentagon personnel put out a memo to the work force at 12: 01 a.m. EDT (0501 GMT). "All service members are to treat one another with dignity and respect regardless of sexual orientation," the memo from Clifford Stanley said.

What a novel idea! Anyway, hooray! [ AP ]