Not to be a one-trick pony, but Assemblyman Joel Anderson’s Iran Divestment bill, AB 221, is garnering some pretty significant coverage….and with the Assembly Retirement Committee’s 4-1 vote in favor this week, it’s serious.

With many unions in support, and SEIU even dropping its opposition, the CTA remains entrenched, apparently comfortable with a perceived position of being in support of our retirement benefits funding terrorist states.  An excerpt from this morning’s SDUT:

…two teachers unions, the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers, said investment decisions should be made by the pension fund boards.

Yeah, well, ok, if the retirement boards were doing the right thing, perhaps the legislature wouldn’t have to intervene.  Even the Teamsters understand "doing the right thing" in supporting the bill:

“For our unions this is a no-brainer,” said Barry Broad, representing the Teamsters and other labor unions. “There is no moral ambiguity. . . . That is just flat-out wrong.”

This comment posted at Red County/San Diego does cause one to laugh:

Kudos to freshman legislator Joel Anderson. Best way to be effective in the minority (and when you’re new for that matter) is to push good, common-sense legislation that even a dumb Dem. can understand and support. Keep up the good work.

That may be a bit harsh, but it does raise an interesting question:  Just how smart is the CTA?

That said, check out some of the other press and blog coverage, even in Le Monde (if you can read it):

http://www.kpbs.org/tv/full_focus?id=7822

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/28/financial/f153504D29.DTL&type=politics

http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=10491

http://www.niacouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=694&Itemid=2

http://bokertov.typepad.com/btb/2007/03/divestiran_come.html

http://youcakeordeath.blogspot.com/search/label/Iran

http://www.nysun.com/article/50798

http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/672198221/m/8860042811001

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_5378564,00.html

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3234,36-885986@51-886091,0.html

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20070320_Business_news_in_brief.html

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.