Bi-partisan legislation has been introduced by U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Chuck Schumer (D-New York), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), and Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) which calls for the immediate closure of the PLO’s office in Washington unless the Palestinians enter into peace negotiations with Israel and also eliminates American assistance to the PA if the International Criminal Court ”adjudicates any matter proposed or supported by the Palestinian Authority” The Algemeiner reported Thursday.

“Senator Schumer is pushing to get a vote between today and tomorrow and encouraging both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to support it,” Senator Schumer’s Press Secretary Marisa Kaufman told The Algemeiner in an email.

Asked about the level of support for the bill in the Senate Kaufman said, “we’re optimistic we’ll get significant support.”

Senator Schumer said of the PA’s bid: ”Over the past year, Palestinian leaders have indicated an intention to apply for full membership in the International Criminal Court and over a dozen other international institutions in order to assert Palestinian claims against Israel.  These unhelpful efforts would not only unfairly target our Israeli ally, but would devastate efforts to resume the peace process and do possibly irreparable harm to those international institutions.  We stand united in preventing this from happening, and will do everything in our power to block the Palestinians from using the International Criminal Court and other international bodies to assert Palestinian claims against Israel.”

The Palestinian authority’s bid for upgraded status at the UN was approved Thursday despite objections from Israel and the United States.

Click here for more in the report from The Algemeiner. 

The United States effectively set a March deadline on Thursday for Iran to start cooperating in substance with a UN nuclear agency investigation, saying it would otherwise urge reporting the issue to the UN Security Council.

The comments by US diplomat Robert Wood to the 35-nation governing board of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency signaled Washington’s growing frustration at the lack of results in the IAEA’s inquiry into possible military dimensions to Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran denies the charge.

"If by March Iran has not begun substantive cooperation with the IAEA, the United States … would urge the board to consider reporting this lack of progress to the UN Security Council," Wood said, according to a copy of his statement.

"Iran cannot be allowed to indefinitely ignore its obligations … Iran must act now, in substance," Wood said. 

Click here for more from The Jerusalem Post. 

Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. released a statement November 27 regarding the Sportsmen’s bill (S. 3525), specifically an amendment to protect veterans’ gun rights, which were blocked by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  

“I’m disappointed Senator Reid once again refused to allow Senators
to offer amendments.  One amendment I filed – the Veterans’ Second
Amendment Protection Act – would have prevented our nation’s veterans
from being denied due process before having a fundamental Constitutional
right taken away when they attempt to purchase a firearm. 

"Specifically, my amendment would have required all veterans who are considered mentally incompetent for purposes of assigning benefit payments, not be considered ‘adjudicated as a mental defective’, and thus losing their Second Amendment rights, unless they have been found by a judicial authority to be a danger to themselves or to others.  Instead of working with his colleagues to correct this overly-broad and unjust regulation, Reid has blocked a vote on this common sense solution.   The American people, and our veterans who have risked their lives for this country, deserve better,” Dr. Coburn said.  

For more information on amendments, click here.

Specifically Dr. Coburn filed the following amendments to S. 3525, the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012.

Coburn amendment #2914– This amendment would require all veterans who are considered mentally incompetent for purposes of assigning benefit payments, not be considered “adjudicated as a mental defective” unless they have been found by a judicial authority to be a danger to themselves or to others. Additional background,here.

Coburn amendment #2915 – This amendment would prioritize federal funds by directing half of the receipts from land sales through FLTFA towards deficit reduction and half towards fixing crumbling structures and roads on federal lands. Additional background, here.

Coburn amendment #2916 –This amendment would strike the mandate that 75 percent of funds from the Neotropical Migratory Bird Program are expended on projects located outside of the United States. Additional background, here.

Coburn amendment #2917 – This amendment would strike the section codifying the duplicative National Fish Habitat Conservation Fund. Additional background, here.

Coburn amendment #2918 – This amendment would protect the 2nd Amendment rights of individuals on lands managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Additional background, here.

The famed Russian news site “Pravda,” which ironically was formed as the official Communist publication of the former Soviet Union, recently released a scathing opinion column entitled, “Obama’s Soviet Mistake.”

In that column, the author unabashedly labels the U.S. president a “Communist
without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it
so.” 

The author, Xavier Lerma, goes on to note how Obama’s “cult of personality” has mesmerized the ignorant in America, who will follow the hope and change icon in much the same way as ”fools” still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia.

“Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.”

Adding an interesting twist to the article, the author juxtaposes President Obama with Vladimir Putin, noting that the Russian president has been sounding more and more like “Ronald Reagan” or other “conservatives in America” who seek to promote smaller government and lower taxes. Lerma attributes the following remarks to Putin regarding the country’s taxes and the economy:

“…we are reducing taxes on production, investing money in the economy. We are optimizing state expenses.

During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

Reading Putin’s speech “without knowing the author,” begins Lerma, “one would think it was written by Reagan or another conservative in America.”

“The speech promotes smaller government and less taxes. It comes as no surprise to those who know Putin as a conservative,” Lerma writes with irony.

Click here for more with video from The Blaze.

Click here for the posting on Pravda.

USA Today is reporting that after meeting with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on Tuesday, three GOP lawmakers said their concerns have only grown about misleading statements Rice made concerning the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

Rice’s meeting with Sens. John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayotte on Capitol Hill came as the White House signaled it may nominate Rice to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of State.

McCain, R-Ariz., has said he may oppose her nomination because she should have known her statements on the Sept. 11 attack were false.

Rice said in a round of interviews days after the deadly incident that the attack may have emerged from a protest outside the consulate in response to an anti-Islam video produced in the USA. It was later learned there was no protest, and the attack was a well-organized terror plot likely timed for the anniversary of 9/11.

"The information she gave the American people was incorrect when she said that it was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video," McCain told reporters after the meeting with Rice.

"The bottom line is that I’m more disturbed than I was before … about how four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya," Graham said.

Click here for more from USA Today.