Liberal Talk Radio

The Onion’s take on unemployment in Michigan:

LANSING, MI—In another devastating blow to the state’s already fragile economy, the Unemployment Insurance Agency of the state of Michigan permanently shuttered its nine branch offices Monday, leaving more than 8,500 unemployment employees unemployed …

“This is a sad day for the people of Michigan,” Granholm said to a crowd of part-time reporters and former assembly-line workers Tuesday. “Our state has a long, hallowed history of unemployment, and with these closings, we have lost a vital part of our economic and social fabric.”

Since its inception in 1937, Michigan’s unemployment benefits system has been among the nation’s most productive, outlasting the state’s automotive and other industrial and manufacturing sectors to become Michigan’s most enduring job-provider.

For many, the closing of UIA marks an end of an era. Flint resident Martha Ayers recalled the “glory days” of the 1980s when the line of workers waiting to get inside each morning stretched around the block.

“People from all over the state used to come just to visit our unemployment office,” Ayers, 52, said. “Just like Detroit, Ypsilanti, Novi, and most other Michigan cities, Flint’s an unemployment town. Has been as long as I can remember.”

Ahhh …