WELL, NOT DOING YOUR JOB IS SUPPOSED TO HURT: Senators not in ‘millionaires’ club’ would be hurt by lost paychecks.

The Senate is often called the “millionaires’ club,” but some of its members would feel the pain if a blown budget deadline costs them their paychecks.

Provisions in the “No Budget, No Pay” debt ceiling bill that is headed to the Senate floor would impound senators’ salaries if the upper chamber doesn’t approve a budget by April 15.

For most of the upper chamber, the loss of the $174,000 annual salary would be no hardship. Many senators are millionaires many times over, having earned substantial fortunes outside of politics.

But for a small group of senators whose net worth is measured in thousands instead of millions, the passage of “No Budget, No Pay” would put their very livelihoods at risk.

“We’re not all millionaires,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) told The Hill. “When I splurge, it’s on a Ravens t-shirt.”

To be fair, they charge extra for XXXL.

DAVID SOLWAY: Understanding The Educational Mess We’re In. “We have reached a point where the past has more to teach us than the present.”

IRAN: A Kiss, And An Embrace.

GOING AFTER THE RATING AGENCIES?

Shades of Argentina.

MICHAEL WALSH: A 57-State Doolittle Strategy.

DAVID MAMET: Gun Laws and the Fools of Chelm. “The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so.”

AT AMAZON, Valentine’s Day gift markdowns and recommendations.

IMPORTANT SENATE DEMOCRATS wavering on gun control. “The popularity of guns like the AR-15 has exploded in the last decade, with millions of Americans using ARs for hunting, target shooting, competition, and home defense. The AR-15, a relatively uncommon rifle when I was growing up, has become mainstream among shooters. When Diane Feinstein talks about banning ARs she is threatening the rights of millions of people, not just a few social outcasts and hillbillies like myself. . . . The power of the gun rights movement has grown since the 1990s because gun culture has been spreading far and wide among people who defy the stereotype of what a gun rights supporter is supposed to be. Just as an anecdote, when I go to the NRA Headquarters Range in Fairfax I see blacks, whites, and Asians all shooting together—not just overweight white guys in John Deere hats. The culture of shooting, including its accompanying political and social mantras, has infiltrated new communities.”

AARON SWARTZ UPDATE: Protesters In Guy Fawkes Masks Target U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

OOPS: Obama Off To A Slow Start In Capitol Hill Gun Campaign. “The campaign emails its massive list demanding calls to Congress. Bad timing — and nobody seems to have noticed.” Obama’s fans aren’t going to be motivated. Gun control is a movement of old white people.

ACE: We Must Do Something About The Media. “It’s important.” So go full Alinsky. Buy stock and show up at shareholder meetings. Protest at executives’ homes, like ACORN did for bankers. Hound correspondents and anchors by name for unfair coverage. That’s how you do it.

STEVEN HAYWARD: We’re Kicking Some Fracking Butt Here:

Not sure whether we have added to the chorus about the new documentary Fracknation that debuted this week, from the dynamic Irish film duo Philem McAleer and Ann McElhinney and co-director Magdalena Segieda. (We did have a brief squib featuring McElhinney in my highlight reel from CPAC last February.) It’s the perfect antidote to Matt Damon’s Promised Land, which, shall we say, isn’t exactly setting the box office on fire like gas-infused tap water.

Meanwhile, sit down for this: at the current Sundance Film Festival–Robert Redford’s baby–there is debuting a new documentary about environmentalists who have changed their mind and are now pro-nuclear power. Does Redford, who signs direct-mail letters for the anti-nuke NRDC, know about this? The film is called Pandora’s Promise.

If you’re seriously worried about global warming, it’s hard not to be pro-nuclear power.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on Building Supplies & Heavy Equipment.

WHY THE BRITISH EMPIRE WAS SO EFFICIENT: Bad communications inhibited micromanagement.

BRYAN PRESTON: Hey, Look at How the Obama Machine Crushed the Romney Campaign. “The GOP had better not only pore over every detail of this at the national and state levels, they must build something better for 2014 and beyond. The Romney campaign’s ORCA project was supposed to be the GOP’s technological answer, but it was a total failure. Last night, Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed the GOP to stop being the ‘stupid party.’ They not only have to stop being stupid, they have to become very, very smart.”

The GOP has some learning to do.

ANDREW MCCARTHY: In Court’s Slap Down of Obama Overreach, ‘The’ Makes All the Difference.

SEN. RON JOHNSON: “We know what happened in Benghazi now… but what we don’t know is why we were misled.”

Plus: “Johnson’s question to her and then to Kerry related to the point in time when the people in the Obama administration decided to mislead the public by actively pushing a phony story about the ‘Innocence of Muslim'” video. That was a strange thing to do, and both Clinton and Kerry have doggedly distracted us by pretending the question is why the attack occurred.”

But Mr. Nakoula is still in jail.

PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Florida Legislators considering pension system overhaul. “A panel of Florida lawmakers is considering a drastic overhaul to the state’s pension system that would include eliminating the state’s current pension system and shifting new employees to a 401(k)-style plan. The move comes just a week after the state Supreme Court upheld a 2011 law that required public employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay to their retirement plans. Previously, the state fully funded the Florida Retirement System, long considered a perk for state employees with low salaries.”

HEH: Gingrich to Piers Morgan: Let’s hold gun-control hearings in Chicago. “Why is it that the people who are for gun control don’t want to go to Chicago to find out why gun control has failed so much?”

DUH. THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT NIXON WAS A REPUBLICAN. John Kerry Tries to Distinguish Obama’s Bombing of Libya from Richard Nixon’s Bombing of Cambodia. Also, shut up.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D Levels Predict Outcomes In Coronary Bypass Surgery. “Low vitamin D levels before coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery predicted worse outcomes after 3 months, results of a retrospective study showed. Patients with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, defined by levels of 25(OH)D, had significantly higher 90-day mortality after CABG than those who had sufficient levels of the vitamin (OR 5.24 and OR 4.61, respectively), Takuhiro Moromizato, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues reported during an oral session at the Society of Critical Care Medicine meeting.”

A BAD WEEK FOR MASSACHUSETTS U.S. ATTORNEY CARMEN ORTIZ. First the Aaron Swartz debacle, now this: Triumphant motel owner slams Carmen Ortiz.

A Tewksbury motel owner who just beat back U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s three-year bid to seize his business has become the latest critic to accuse the Hub’s top fed of prosecutorial bullying.

“I don’t think she should have the power she has to pull this stuff on people,” Russ Caswell, owner of the Motel Caswell, told the Herald last night after a judge’s ruling in his favor.

The feds first tried to grab Caswell’s property in 2009 under drug seizure laws, citing numerous drug busts at the motel. Caswell’s defense team argued that he was not responsible for what guests did. And his lawyers found there was actually more drug activity at nearby businesses, and theorized the government was going after Caswell, who has no criminal record, because his mortgage-free property is worth more than $1 million.

“It’s bullying by the government. And it’s a huge waste of taxpayer money,” said Caswell, whose father built the motel in 1955. “This has been a huge financial and physical toll. It’s thrown our whole family into turmoil. You work for all your life to pay for something and these people come along and think it’s theirs. It’s just wrong. The average person can’t afford to fight this.”

In a written decision after a November trial, U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Gail Dein dismissed the government’s forfeiture action, ruling yesterday that Caswell, “who was trying to eke out an income from a business located in a drug-infested area that posed great risks to the safety of him and his family,” took all reasonable steps to prevent crime.

“The Government’s resolution of the crime problem should not be to simply take his Property,” Dein said in her decision.

The innkeeper’s complaint follows the suicide of hacker Aaron Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines. Swartz’s family, lawyers and legal commentators have called for Ortiz’s ouster and new guidelines for federal attorneys, saying the Swartz case was a prosecutorial abuse.

It’s hard to imagine Ortiz moving to higher office that would require some sort of Senate confirmation after this. At least, the hearings would be ugly.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Emails show FBI investigating Sen. Bob Menendez for sleeping with underage Dominican prostitutes.

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Egyptian protesters torch Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Ismailia. But if you really want to succeed, you need to make people afraid to identify with the Muslim Brotherhood.

CHINA’S SHALE GAS DREAM. “Given the limited extraction capability of Chinese firms, this will exacerbate the already immense challenges China faces in extracting the natural gas and bringing it to market.”