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In a Congress when Republicans’ obstructionist tactics have become scandalous, and a discredited GOP minority has effectively shut down the American policymaking process, Sen. Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama still stands out for his brazenness.

Shelby, you’ll recall, placed a blanket hold on several dozen administration nominees, holding them hostage until the senator was paid off in earmarked pork. He eventually backed off, at least in part, though he continues to block Senate votes on three top positions in the Air Force.

CNN’s Dana Bash asked the right-wing senator yesterday whether his actions are justified.

BASH: I spoke with Geoff Morrell over at the Pentagon and just asked him what the impact is of not having these three people in place — one of whom, as you know, is the number two at the Air Force. He said, “Without these people, we’re not firing on all cylinders.” And he also said, “It does adversely affect the organization.”

Are you worried about that? This is a time of war –

SHELBY: The Pentagon is a big place. I don’t think one or two will affect anything except on the margins.

BASH: Do you think that the nominees you have holds on are qualified?

SHELBY: Oh, I don’t have any idea.

In a sane political world, this would put Shelby in an impossible-to-defend position.

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The Reg was contacted by an angry reader who found a message from Davina McCall on his 1571 voicemail telling him about BT’s sponsorship of the Sport Relief charity. He was annoyed because his number has been registered with the no-pester register the Telephone Preference Service since February 2007, which should ensure he doesn’t get unsolicited sales or marketing calls.

You might think the issue here is whether or not a charity call is really a sales call, but in fact it’s even murkier than that.

When the reader complained to BT he was told that the message did not qualify as a call because the messages were sent straight to subscribers’ mail boxes; since no actual two-way phone call was made, the communication is not covered by TPS rules.

BT said: “As part of this year’s Sport Relief campaign BT is sponsoring the BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride. To raise money BT is operating Chat for Change Day on Friday 26th February where 1p will be donated to Sport Relief for every call made on a BT landline.

Perhaps the letter of the rules allow this, but the spirit definately doesn’t. It’s a clear message BT is sending its clients: BT doesn’t give a flying fuck about your wishes.

It’s the same with political parties over here in NL. There’s a local election coming up, and three local political parties have already made it impossible for me to ever vote for them – I have a very standard sticker on my mailbox stating I don’t want any non-addressed mail, but these political idiots think their message is more important than my wishes and crammed their party political program down my mailbox. If they’re going to ignore me on such a minor issue, odds are that they’re going to ignore me on pretty much everything else as well. So fuck them, I won’t vote for them.

“Thank you for your purchase of this fine Lockheed product! Your SR-71 has been designed for years of quality service. Before using your new device, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the contents of this package, including the quick start guide, product warranty card, Flight Manual…”