see improvement there. real gdp accelerate. i think this will help sustain a long economic good evening, everybody. breaking news here tonight. russian president vladimir putin becoming increasingly aggressive and reckless in both ukraine and now here in the united states. defense department officials say russian ground forces are carrying out attacks against ukrainian troops within ukraine itself and attacking the banking system with hackers from within russia. fox news has confirmed from senior u.s. defense officials that there is now evidence that shows the russian military firing artillery from within ukraine at ukrainian military positions. intelligence officials say that there are more than 1,000 russian troops now fighting inside ukraine with the help of

tanks and heavy artillery, despite the constant denials from vladimir putin. here is state department spokesperson jen psaki on new evidence of russian aggression in ukraine. >> we have also seen reports of separatists shelling residential areas and in coastal towns and we have seen reports of heavy fighting and shelling near the city and airport in donesk. these incursions indicate a russian directed counteroffensive is likely underway. clearly that is of deep concern to us. >> you will remember putin denied any role in the attack on the malaysian airlines flight downed last month. 268 civilians were killed but video of a russian anti-aircraft missile crossing the border and an intercepted phone

conversation between rebel leaders and russian intelligence proved otherwise. also tonight, reports that the fbi is investigating a breach of the u.s. banking system according to those reports, russian hackers attacked and successfully infiltrated jpmorgan chase and at least one other unidentified major bank over the past two weeks. the russian hackers able to obtain gigabytes of sensitive data, that according to jpmorgan officials who declined to be identified. the fbi now investigating the breach as possible retaliation for western economic sanctions levied against russia. the fbi declining to comment with the investigation ongoing. an american journalist is back home in cambridge, massachusetts after two years of being held captive by an al qaeda linked group in syria. peter theo curtis made his first public comments outside his family home, thanking everyone who had worked to free him. >> i had no idea that so much

effort was being expended on my behalf. and now having found out, i am just overwhelmed with emotion. i'm also overwhelmed by one other thing and that is that total strangers have been coming up to me and saying hey, we're just glad you're home, welcome home. glad you're back, glad you're safe. >> the group that freed curtis is the al nusra front, a sunni group that is fighting bashar al assad's group in syria but it is also fighting against the islamic state. that's the group that beheaded journalist james foley and is still holding journalist steven sotloff. today, sotloff's mother shirley released an emotional video asking the leaders of the islamic state to free her son. >> steven has no control over the actions of the u.s. government. he is an innocent journalist. i have always heard that you the caliph can grant amnesty. i ask you to please release my

child. >> the islamic state also believed to be holding two american humanitarian aid workers. an open-ended cease-fire between israel and hamas is still holding tonight after seven weeks of conflict in which more than 2200 people were killed. in a news conference today, prime minister benjamin netanyahu said it was too early to say whether the calm will endure. he also, however, threatened hamas with a more vigorous response if it resumed firing on any part of israel. to give you a sense of what the israelis have had to contend with, this is new video posted on youtube that shows israel's iron dome simultaneously destroying 15 hamas rockets. some of the more than 4500 rockets fired at israel since the beginning of the conflict. 15 rockets simultaneously destroyed. the obama administration pressing allies to support

possible air strikes in syria with the uk and australia willing to join a coalition, that according to the "new york times." officials also asking turkey to seal off its border with syria in an effort to stop the flow of foreign jihadists to the islamic state. for more now on the administration's foreign policy challenges, we are joined by retired four star army general, former army vice-chief of staff, general jack keene, also fox news military analyst. general, great to have you with us tonight. let's turn to first the purported next couple of days, a plan that is to be created for the president's consideration. your reaction to that development? >> well, i applaud it and it's a new step in the right direction. we should lead a coalition effort to conduct air strikes in syria and obviously also in iraq, and the more we can get to

participate, the better. in addition to as you mentioned, hope that they would get some of the regional allies to participate like jordan, saudi arabia, who will also be threatened by isis eventually. so this is a big step. we don't know if the president's going to make that decision. he's walked up to decisions before and backed away. but i know from what the military is doing, they are planning an effort along those lines. >> that effort apparently includes looking for financial support from saudi arabia, qatar, the united arab emirates. your thoughts about that, because qatar, for example, some of those countries supporting the very forces that we are about to engage. >> well, i totally disagree with what's been taking place in terms of regional allies supporting radical islamic terrorists, not just this organization, but others. the saudis, their citizens have

been up to this for some time. i think we have to clamp down with our allies to get this, to knock it off. qatar as a government have supported isis, they have provided arms and funding to them, particularly in the beginning when they entered syria. they have done some other things for us and with us, but this is one thing that we've got to stop. once and for all, we have got to get a cooperative effort from our regional allies to pull together to work against this organization. >> general, qatar. we have a huge air base there. we have been building a relationship with the country. at the same time, they are supporting the very people against which we are fighting. our allies are fighting and at some point, is it not truly the american way to kill our enemies? we seem to have lost sight that this is a super power that must exert its influence on the

behalf of our values, our interests and for the good of the world. >> i totally agree with you, lou. we have moral principles that guide us in our actions around the world. this is the united states of america. we've got very strong values and we believe in them. we should not be looking the other way. we know for a fact that qatar provides assistance to hamas. they have been doing that for years. those rockets that rained on israel by the thousands are directly linked to the funding that came out of that country and we should not look the other way. we should remove those bases if this behavior doesn't change. we do a lot of business in qatar, american businessmen, we could impact on that as well, and we have to take the gloves off once and for all. >> and speaking of morality, how

immoral is it for us to continue a form of, if you will, a detente with a regime that supports terrorism and terrorism against our allies as well as ourselves? there seems to be a time when this nation just asserts its values and if not now, when? >> well, i totally agree with that. these challenges have been out there for some time, and we have been turning our head and not facing up to them. clearly, even with what russia and iran is doing with assad and 200,000 dead now, millions of people displaced, that is a human catastrophe that's taking place there. it's off the front pages in terms of american media but it should not be. it should never be off the table for the united states. we should have dealt with that situation sometime ago. >> iran, russia, the challenges are clear.

the united states is being challenged as well by china, and it seems to be a reflection of a certain passivity that has gripped our national leadership. what should we do? >> well, i clearly think that's true. the fact of the matter is our adversaries have taken advantage of a situation that they have perceived that america is pulling back from its traditional role of leadership that it's had since world war ii that transcended democratic and republican presidents. they see this less in our words but more in our actions, and they pay attention to it. i think that is why these countries are considerably more assertive and aggressive than what they have been in the past, and they also take note that the united states is decimating its own military. which makes no sense to take ground forces back to pre-world war ii and the navy and the air force back to the 1950s status.

anybody looking at that knows that the united states is a world power and a super power and that military is needed to support our economic and global interests, and doing that kind of decimation to it clearly emboldens our adversaries. >> general, good to see you. >> always good talking to you, lou. a cease-fire in the seven week long conflict between israel and hamas, israel consul general joins us to tell us why the deal could be made this time.

israel and hamas have agreed to an open-ended cease-fire, but pushing talks on more complex issues such as the disarmament

of hamas won't begin until next month. for more on the cease-fire i'm joined by the consul general of israel here in new york. good to have you with us. >> thank you. >> what is different this time over the five as we count them cease-fires that were tried, attempted and broken very quickly over the preceding seven weeks? >> well, actually, believe it or not, this is the twelfth attempt. hamas initiated six of them and violated all six of them. what's different i think is the fact that over time, we managed to severely impair the operational capabilities of hamas. 70% of the rockets and missile stockpile was destroyed or used by hamas. all the tunnels that are known to us, the offensive operational tunnels were destroyed. you look at the facts, hamas didn't get release of prisoners as they demanded, they are not getting a seaport, they are not getting an airport, they are not

even getting money for the payroll. the only thing they're getting is if they will behave in the next month, we will begin indirectly a discussion with them about the reconstruction of gaza. >> i think a lot of people would ask, and i think fairly, why in the world would there be any question about israel tolerating this kindof aggression on the part of hamas and a continued belligerent threat against the state of israel and its people? >> it's an excellent question. i wish i knew the answer. i can only just say this. we are fighting the fight of the free world. if people think there's a difference between hamas and isis or hezbollah or al qaeda, they are dead wrong. i think that the actions of hamas, executing their own people only the other day, 18 people in the city square surrounded by hundreds of cheering people proves that point. it happened two days after isis so brutally took the life of james foley, an american

citizen. >> the claims of the destruction, 70% of the rockets and the missiles held by hamas, are you confident that at this point, your inventory, if you will, of their arsenal is correct? what are you going to do to assure the safety of the people of israel during this cease-fire because you have nothing but history to rely upon, and it is a history that shows they will attack you in the midst of this process. >> well, there are two types of rockets and mortars and missiles that they're using. you have the midrange and the long-range supplied by syria. most of those came in during morsi's time as egypt's president. most of the damage was done during morsi's presidency and we believe that's over. the other kind of weapon that they're using is locally produced mortars that they

actually manufacture within gaza itself. that's a problem. we tried to destroy as many workshops as possible but there's no guarantee they won't be able to produce them again in the future. >> positive within this is your government, working with the government of egypt, and egypt, the government of egypt serving as a negotiator and a broker in this cease-fire and attempting throughout most of the seven weeks to try to achieve what apparently has been achieved here now, what are your thoughts about the future of the relationship with egypt and israel? >> certainly egypt played a very constructive role. there is a clear self-interest on the part of the egyptians in this sense. hamas is a bitter enemy of egypt. reports came in before the escalation about 100 egyptian soldiers killed by hamas terrorists in the sinai, but hamas is the idealogical twin of

islamic brotherhood which is viewed by the current administration in egypt as a big problem. >> it's worth noting that the obama administration worked very hard with the president of egypt now to include the muslim brotherhood in his government, which was rejected out of hand by this government. good to have you with us. >> thank you for having me. >> appreciate it. up next, my commentary on why the obama white house and much of the democratic party shouldn't have it their way on the burger king deal. wondering what that is? that, my friends, is everything. and with the quicksilver card from capital one, you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase. not just "everything at the hardware store." not "everything, until you hit your cash back limit." quicksilver can earn you unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you could possibly imagine. say it with me -- everything. one more time, everything! and with that in mind...

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a few comments on a company whose stock took a beating today, and what our president likes to call economic patriotism. that patriotism is lacking in almost 50 companies that have bought businesses in foreign countries over the past decade. in order to create a domicile outside the united states that permits them to pay lower taxes in that foreign country. among those companies, medtronic, chiquita brands, applied materials and now burger king, whose stock lost about a half billion dollars in market

cap today. while cable networks and all forms of connectivity were ablaze with washington outrage over the burger king deal to buy canada's tim horton's fast food chain. burger king's $11 billion acquisition would create the world's third largest fast food company, one that would move its headquarters from miami, florida to oakville, ontario, just south of toronto but well north of the highest corporate taxes in the world. politicians and media mavens immediately looked to canada's combined local, federal and state tax rate. it's 26%. that's a third less than the u.s. combined corporate rate of 39%. but the story is far more complicated than that, doggone it, and add to the deal the revered warren buffett, democratic donor and advocate of higher taxes, whose berkshire

hathaway financing is putting up just about a fourth of the total deal. the same buffett who is always crowing about rich people paying more taxes, investing in america, say it isn't so. well, actually, it isn't so. not so simple, at least. burger king tonight is fighting a widening backlash, a political and media backlash against a deal that almost everyone assumed was another american company doing a so-called inversion deal, buying a foreign company to run from high u.s. taxes. a lot of democrats are mad as hell. among those, senator sharon brown, calling for a burger king boycott, by golly. this afternoon, burger king was promising that it will keep its u.s. headquarters in miami, just move its global headquarters north. i think that was their intention all along. there's another small matter here. burger king was born in america some 60 years ago, but its

growth trajectory has been sharp and mostly international. europe, latin america, the middle east, you know, international. and there is the little matter of ownership. burger king was bought by the global brazilian investment firm 3g capital four years ago. that's right. burger king is brazilian owned. it's majority owned by 3g capital, headquartered in new york and rio de janeiro which has investments in little companies like ab imbev, heinz, you get the idea. burger king long ago became a global brand, a global business, as have so many american businesses, and they all represent the best of america, originality, hard work, innovation, entrepreneurialism,

plain straightforward talk and free enterprise capitalism, and i am for all of that. i am for economic patriotism. but i believe we should all understand that there's nothing more patriotic in this country than honoring the values and traditions of this great nation that has nurtured the creation of business, small and large. millions of jobs created and sustained. a middle class that is still the envy of the world. that's my idea of economic patriotism. it's all about america and what we've stood for for so long. and i mention burger king stock lost half a billion in market cap today. it's only fair that i point out that it's still up about a billion and a half dollars from friday's close on the world's leading stock exchange. the new york exchange. and i should also mention that the new york exchange is american owned. i couldn't help but add that. the obama white house has succeeded in the irs scandal. so says our guest tonight.

he says the obama administration has managed to delay, derail and deceive. is in court to make certain the obama administration fails the obama administration fails ultimately in its stonewall. denturthan real teeth.erent they're about ten times softer and have surface pores where bacteria n multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor-causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture everyday.

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$506 billion, smaller than in previous years but still hefty. real gdp growth this year projected at 1.5% down from a february estimate of 3.1%. turning to the irs targeting scandal now, my next guest represents more than 40 organizations in a federal lawsuit against the irs and says the obama administration is doing everything it can to stall its phony investigation. joining us is jay sakalow, chief counsel for the american center for law and justice. good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me back. >> our pleasure. let me start with this back and forth nonsense about missing e-mails which we had said, by the way, on this broadcast from the outset, according to our experts, they were retrievable, they were not lost and it's pure bunk what's been spewed and to find out that lois lerner's blackberry was destroyed, was

wiped clean. i mean, somebody needs to go to jail here, right? >> well, look, you're talking about a classic case of obstruction of justice. by the way, her blackberry was cleared out after litigation had been filed in a companion case alleging targeting and after the congressional investigations had already started, lou, so the irs, department of justice, fbi, everybody was on notice but amazingly, her computer crashes as they said, they then say her documents are not retrievable, then of course you have the admission earlier in the week, this week, where pursuant to a freedom of information act request, there was discussions that in fact, there is a mass backup unit which we all know exists but they said it was too burdensome to get to. then this miraculously, for lois lerner and the fbi and the department of justice and i might add, the president, her e-mails are wiped off of her blackberry, too. there's nothing there. no one can believe this. it's lying, it's lying under

oath to congress and i'll tell you something. when you look at the transition that took place between the lawyer that was litigating the case -- the cases we're involved in, there was a companion case where a pro-israel group that was targeted, the lawyer that was representing the irs had actually been involved in the targeting when he worked for treasury, then went over to the white house counsel's office, where he worked for the president, then over to the department of justice and now he's also mysteriously no longer involved. so this is a coverup and obstruction of justice of really proportions we haven't seen in my lifetime. >> what is it going to take to get to the heart of this case? because now the evidence is conclusive. i mean, to me, at least, as a layman. i'm not talking in legal terms but the head of the irs who is supposed to be clean is as dirty as he can be. >> you're right, he went to congress just a couple weeks back at the end of july saying we did everything we could to

retrieve it, we weren't able to do it. that was not true. what it's going to take which is not going to happen initially, that is a call for a special counsel, where there has been congressional hearings on it, i have testified on it. it's the classic case of when you need one. the department of justice is incapable of investigating itself. in fact, their involvement in this other scandal as part of the irs mess where they were part of an irs attempt to make criminal cases out of what they called let's piece together false claim cases, false application cases. of course, no evidence of any false applications there. but they were going -- they were participating so the idea is absurd. we are in federal court, i will tell you this also. this is some good developments here. in a companion case, very similar fact situation, u.s. district court judge there has allowed the case to move forward, has ordered discovery and also in other cases, the irs is being put on notice that no one, including federal court judges, are buying this

destruction of evidence accident that the irs seems to still -- and the president seems to still maintain. >> as you say, that is good news, and it's progress and it's positive, yet we have been now, the next development has been pushed off as i understand it to the month of october. still, the american people have it staring at them straight in the face that this government is corrupt, that the internal revenue service has been used as a political tool, a hammer. >> absolutely. >> against innocent people whose only problem was that they were on a different side of the political spectrum than the people running the internal revenue service. i mean, this is -- >> the only problem is they exercised their first amendment rights to free speech. that was the government's problem with what they did. but lou, this points to a deeper problem. how are they getting away with this? and the fact of the matter is, i'll tell you this, if there's a change in the senate and the

senate could start holding hearings as well and you got the house and the senate making demands, that could change the entire scope of what happens here because i don't think then that attorney general holder can just ignore the reality of what would be bearing in on his department of justice. right now he's not acting like an attorney or a general, frankly. >> we have been talking about this it seems for years. a year and a half. but the reality is nothing here has changed. the facts are the same. we are just discovering more of them. the administration continues to cover them up, as you say. at what point does this dam break and the truth flow into the public? >> when we get our first discovery orders, and that may be months ahead yet. but when the discovery starts and lois lerner is put under oath and she again asserts the fifth amendment, the problem is, in a criminal case you can do it and it's not an admission of liability. in a civil case, you assert the

fifth amendment that means what we have alleged is true and i think you see a domino effect. i would really be looking at giving her some form of immunity to get to the bottom of this because i don't believe for a moment, my first job out of law school was a long time ago but it was in the office of chief counsel of the irs, the lawyers that are involved in this. i was proud of the agency when i was there. it's changed a lot over time, obviously. i'll tell you something. the reality is this isn't stting and stopping with lerner. i think this connect between this lawyer that was at the white house, the department of justice, and at irs, i think that speaks volumes and all these people need to be put under oath. if they all start asserting the fifth amendment, we know what we've got. >> thanks very much. we will be following you as we have throughout very very carefully. >> thanks, lou. ukraine says russia has invaded a day ahead of a meeting between its president and vladimir putin. the former president of georgia joins us here next. how about over there?

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for more now on ukraine and

the rebellion, i am joined by the former president of georgia. he served as president from 2004 to 2013. he is senior statesman at tufts university fletcher school of law and diplomacy. great to have you here. >> nice to be back. >> you are going to be heading to ukraine tomorrow. this is a peculiar moment given the convoy that the government says is an invasion by the russians and the meeting between the two leaders set for tomorrow. do you think that meeting goes ahead? >> yeah, i think this meeting, the whole thing is scheduled for that meeting. it's the whole setting for the meeting and it's very much like -- looks like vladimir putin's style. he's doing the same things over and over again, trying to get it right. so like the movie "groundhog day."

so when the hero relives the same thing over and over again until he gets it. so putin has been doing the same thing all the way through and basically people are getting at this invasion, it's not an invasion, well, what else is it? you have russian tanks, russian soldiers, captured in quite some numbers by the ukrainians. they show them to the world. there is artillery bombing from russia. >> poroshenko, what should he do? he's faced with an awesome force that he can't overcome. he can't even truly meet the force without being overtaken. what are his options here? >> well, look, tomorrow's talks take part on the 26th of august, that's the day when russia recognized so-called

independence for first time since second world war, they created the precedent that they tried to change european borders through force. so that's the anniversary. now, the reason i mention it is there are things we should learn about russia. first that we should never underestimate and the west always underestimates how uncivilized putin can get. he can go as far as it takes in his behavior. second, unchecked aggression creates other unchecked aggression. it was unchecked in georgia, it created crimea. crimea created east of ukraine. if they are not checked now, it will spread to other parts of ukraine. so poroshenko is in a tough situation because putin's record is using these kind of talks for his own agenda and his own agenda is basically getting back the territory but also killing the idea of ukrainian democracy ever being successful and

basically from his standpoint, we are talking about middle east now, but he fought war in syria and won it. now he thinks he's fighting with america in ukraine and he's winning it. >> we just put up pictures of poroshenko and angela merkel. she seems to be standing up, at least that is the appearance. is it the reality? >> well, the messages were rather ambiguous. the reason why it happened this way is that america's attention span went somewhere else, isis tried to mobilize and quite successfully after some time, european allies to do sanctions which really do work. but now merkel shows up incidentally on the day of the old pact for which they divided also parts of ukraine. i'm not comparing her in any way to old style germany, but some critics might do that. i would not go that far. but the reality is that there is this country, big country,

largest country in europe, ukraine, stranded in place between russia and germany on the other side, and this long-standing story. the problem is that germany's overwhelmed with economic issues. i remember ronald reagan used to tell them and my friends reminded me, don't build this pipeline. don't get dependent upon russian gas and oil. it's going to haunt you. and reagan had the point. he was so right, when you look at what is happening now. basically merkel comes and says we don't want russia to be defeated, because it will humiliate them so much that we will have unpredictable sort of country but if russia is not defeated, we are dealing with huge consequences for western civilization, democratic world. >> defeated. militarily, economically, diplomatically or all of the above, or some percentage thereof, the reality is that

this administration doesn't seem to be making any overt moves, taking any overt action, to blunt either the russian maneuvers or the ukrainian, providing support to the ukrainian government. >> well, there was lots of discussion as to whether to arm syrian rebels. i understand it. but here you have european country that is fighting 100% for u.s. values, for freedom. freedom is at stake. u.s. strategic interests are at stake. u.s. fought several wars in europe and won them. and here, it's automatically excluded even considering arming ukraine. the problem is u.s. cannot abdicate world leadership. there is need for u.s. leadership. >> you say it can't. >> it cannot afford -- >> i understand what you're saying. but the fact of the matter is,

there are those who say this president has abdicated that leadership. >> if u.s. abdicates than what we see is ambiguous european, the behavior becomes unhelpful and we see everything going to hell. it will harm u.s. interests. i think there is awareness of this in washington. now, too many bad things are happeng at the same time but that's what leadership is all about. you deal with all these things but in ukraine, you don't need much, you just need to stand by them, you know. don't demoralize them by giving them mixed messages and also do small things like precision weapons. ukrainians have enough weapons but they need precision. they want more precision, they need more intelligence and just pushing for cease-fire. when putin's end game is very clear, he wants to kill that state all together, he wants to kill idea of democracy all together. this cease-fire is not going to help ukrainians in any way.

the ukrainians don't want war. nobody wants war. but they want freedom. if you want to end this war, they are not willing to surrender and poroshenko is not in position to surrender. so tomorrow's talks are not going to result in anything except that it will create more ambiguity and putin will use it as a pretext for more attacks. i think the pattern of behavior is clear and the west should be much better prepared for the followup. >> you would think the u.s. administration, given putin's record, would have understood the strategy he would employ. we thank you for being with us. safe travels tomorrow. >> good to be back. >> good luck in kiev. a disengaged and scandal-ridden white house dragging democrats down. ahead of the november midterm elections. we will take that up with pulitzer prize winning columnist michael goodwin.

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joining us now, pulitzer prize winning journalist michael goodwin, columnist for "the new york post." fox news contributor. great to have you here. >> thank you. >> today in ferguson, we heard reverend al sharpton as i said in my commentary stand up and talk about i think incredibly eternal decent values that have been absence from the discussion in ferguson over these tragic two weeks, little over two weeks since michael brown was shot. what did you think of the reverend's departure at least from my expectation? >> look, i agree. i thought he was in danger of becoming an outside agitator, that phrase from the '60s that's been trotted out again, by being just like a '60s outside

agitator which is what he was doing i think largely there. i think today was more of a grown-up moment for him. a moment where he talked about issues that weren't just related to this case but to the larger urban culture and to the issues there. i wish he would continue that vein of thought when he comes back to new york, because in new york, for example, the naacp is fighting charter schools along with the teachers union. the teachers union of course is responsible for the worst schools in new york city. the charter schools are breaking the mold with black and latino children, yet the naacp is resisting charter schools. that's the sort of thing i think whe the rubber meets the road with a lot of these cultural issues. >> the nonsense that emanates, whether it be in the new york school district, with many challenges, no question about it. from washington, d.c., from this president who should be a natural ally of improving

education for all kids, because i have said for decades look, the great equalizer in this society is not the government. it's not all of us, you know, all of these initiatives and programs, it's public education. public education is what makes this a meritocracy, it gives every poor kid a chance and why in the world there can't be agreement about that is beyond me. >> that's one of the great tragedies, frankly, the teachers union has become a regressive force in american education and too many democrats, too many black democrats, frankly, are walking step by step with the teachers union, which is holding back these inner city kids. the teachers union is all about the seniority, all about protecting the teachers. the kids are suffering and too many black politicians are going right along with that. >> president obama can be accused of a lot of things, the

democrats accused of a lot of things, but they are not lacking when it comes to the ability to raise money. they have outraised, i think a lot of people will be surprised to hear this, they outraised the republicans so far in the midterm elections. is that going to have an influence on the outcome? >> we could never discount or underestimate the power of money. it's interesting, of course, now the election after labor day begins a new phase. this is the crucial phase. i think the president, if he's going to do something on immigration, will do it to time to the election. it is all about the fall election now. i think that's all he will be talking about, is everything for him now i think is going to be about the senate, can he hold the senate. because if he doesn't, i think the terrible time he's had these two years is about to get worse. >> is there anything that suggests to you on the near horizon of likely events that would be helpful to this president and the democratic party before those midterm elections? >> well, look, i think if he were to be a more attendant

president -- >> show up? >> just show up and -- >> attendant or attending? >> attending to the problems. this is what he's not doing. i think this argument over golf, it's not the optics. i think optics is a demeaning phrase the white house would want to use to say it's just how it looks. it's not how it looks. it's what he's doing with his time. we know what he's not doing. now we see what he's doing. it's a mismatch to the reality of the world. he's got to work harder. >> work and obama. a curious juxtaposition. michael, thanks so much. >> there's a book in there. >> michael goodwin. time for a few of your comments. we have seen president obama's agenda. there is no surprise of how he is handling foreign affairs, lead from behind. and john e-mailed me, one of the reasons we are losing the war on poverty is we allow mexico and central american countries to export their poverty to us.

a free copy of "border wars" shipped to the authors of tonight's comments. e-mail me as always, follow us on twitter.

. neil: in britain they raised terror threat, in america, we are assessing if we have a threat. >> as prime minister, extremism in britain, focusing on all types of extremism. >> i don't want to put the cart before the horse. we don't have a strategy yet. neil: welcome, everybody. confused? i'm neil cavuto. it's not so much the world passing us by i'm worried about. more like dangerous folks stopping by. that's what i'm really worried about. the images of isis rebels parading syrian troops little more than a week after the beheading of an american journalist leads me believe to the bad guys are not slowing