We’ve all been hearing enough about the zombie banks. It is time to get the z-word back into the bloodstained hands of the undead where it belongs.

Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) has been trying his best to block $700 million in federal stimulus funds that could go to his state and help out with little things like, you know, unemployment. Think Progress notes that South Carolina’s unemployment rate has risen from 10.3% in January to 11% the following month. There are “[f]ive counties in the state fac[ing] more than 20 percent unemployment, with the highest, Allendale County, at 23.4 percent.” For comparison, the national unemployment rate average was 8.1% for February.

The Senate Budget Committee was discussing the budget legislation yesterday when an exchange occurred between Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) that proved the latter to be quick on his feet and the former to be an overgrown ten year old:

When I filled out the form letter at Think Progress to send to the advertisers of Bill O’Reilly’s program, I included my email address to pass along to the corporations. I just received an auto-reply from UPS:

On the fail-scale, this flies right past “epic” and buries the needle.