Barack Obama says he's going to freeze all federal workers' pay for two years, so maybe they will get an idea of what it's like to have a private-sector job in America, where all wages outside of Wall Street and Silicon Valley have been frozen since the Recession began way back in 2008. But one very special group of federal workers won't see any pay freeze at all: Military brass! Those uniformed heroes who work for America's Permanent War Machine will continue to enjoy all the nice raises and benefits they've come to expect while doing whatever it is the Pentagon does with basically all of the nation's tax money.

Of course, the Americans who get blown up and shot to pieces in our myriad imperial wars still face pretty lousy pay, endless redeployments, and families abandoned to the vagaries of apartment life on or near the bases. And life as a veteran is still fairly terrible for many who come back from the wars with physical or mental injuries. But at least the brass will continue to be richly rewarded for .... uh, losing wars everywhere and ruining America and inspiring nothing more than Xmas Tree bomb attempts (with the FBI's help, as far as the "bomb part"). [NYT]