ellen ratner. ask tough questions because they know the issues. he goes around them. he goes around us all the time and we let him get away with. >> it don't ask touch. >> sometimes they do. they started -- >> i see ellen from time to time at the white house. we are there together. when the news briefing takes place with -- the president, you people get around asking tough questions? >> i think people do ask tough questions. i think sometimes, you know, it is -- some of the tv people want to get that clip on so they ask the same question time and time again. different ways. i think that the tough questions are asked. my view is as any time that he can ask ask questions whether it is jay leno or anybody that would be good but i have to say that political came -- politico came out with the campaign of the week p.m. campaigning to getting back to being barack obama again. >> i saw that. what did you think about that? >> i thought for him it was the right venue because for this president, i think like built is key. i think that when have you issues like benghazi, when you

. >> kelly: judy miller, jim pinkerton, ellen ratner and affair ard grenell. i'm kelly wright. fox news watch is on right now. >> end of the war in afghanistan doesn't mean the end of threats to our nation. as i said before even as we decimated the al-qaeda leadership that attacked us on 9/11, al-qaeda affiliates and like-minded extremists still threatened the homeland, still threaten our diplomatic facilities, still threaten our businesses abroad. we've got to take these threats seriously and do all we can to confront them. >> kelly: president obama at camp pendleton delivering a sobering message about the threats we still face from al-qaeda and other extremists. he also commented on the terror threat and progress we have made against al-qaeda while appearing on the tonight show with jay leno and answered questions on friday afternoon at a press conference. jim, the tonight show, was it the right place, proper place to talk about such issues as terror alerts? >> actually jay leno asked tougher questions than the "new york times" -- i have to confess as an avid news consumer, i

ellen ratner, talk radio news service bureau chief. and fox news contributor richard grenell. i'm john scott. "fox news watch" is on right now. >>> this with endless parade of distractions and phony the point is, with an endless distraction of political posturing. endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals. so far for most of this year, we've seen an endless parade and distractions and political posturing and phony scandals and we keep on shifting our attention away from what we should be focused on. >> the president, as you can see there, is trying to hammer home his theme that he has a plan, just that republicans and these distractions are getting in his way. so what are the phony scandals? >> in the speech again yesterday, president obama mentioned the phony scandals that are part of an endless parade of distractions it can you tell us what phony scandals? >> i'm not going to catalog -- >> irs and benghazi -- >> there was a period where there was a lot more energy and focus was paid by some in congress as well as in the media on issues that, w

ellen ratner is bureau chief for talk radio services. thanks for joining us today. what do you make of the continuation of the irs scandal where we are three months into it? one on have thought or hoped that it would have all been rectified by now. ellen, what's going on here? >> my view is that -- look, they -- they talked a lot about the tea party groups and they were, in fact, first group we found out but were also targeting left leaning groups. and -- if you are going to take a 501 tax free exempt that means they are not paying taxes and you and i have to make up that difference. i don't believe political groups should get that tax exemption and they should fairly target both groups. >> what do you think? angela, did the irs actually cooperate with some of the other perhaps political groups to target the conservatives specifically? >> that remains to be seen. that's why the role of government is to protect the consumer. that's why we have hearings. we have lois lerner pleading the fifth. by the way i'm innocent. i don't have anything to hide. the irs is supposed

joe consha, ellen ratner, radio talk news and fox news contributor richard granel. i'm john scott.the president has moved the nation one step closer to military action against syria. >> the pentagon is awaiting the president's order to retaliate against the syrian dictatorship. >> the u.n has lost a key ally. >> top administration officials are briefing congression alleyeders this evening on their case for launching an attack against syria. >> cufnlg of the lead up to -- coverage of the lead up of what is known as military action in syria dominated the news cycle. some suggest that the president is being pushed into military action by the media. what do you think? >> i think the president is being pushed into action by his campaign promise nine weeks before his re-election. he ignored the issue for so long and then drew a red line and now put himself into a corner. the media this week tried to make comparisons to iraq and say basically this is not iraq. what the new york times and new york magazine and "time" magazine failed to do was to really tell us this is not iraq. we don't ha

india just last week which is about two weeks ago and i saw it so in a teaching what's that about ellen ratner my good friend and. your friend in two thousand and ten said you need to go to india need to recharge your batteries i went over stated to bet in college and you know studied some of the buddhism studied some language and some anthropology and the next thing i know. given to an audience of a friend of mine dr akers i knew from columbus and she got us into an audience which ellen rather has been in with the dalai lama and i go to his teachings you know i'm not a buddhist but i think that philosophy is a great stay in the moment thing and after what i went through meditation helped me and i think we can all learn a lot about compassion and and peace from the dalai lama oh i found him to be yeah he's he's he's remarkable so in the two minutes or so we have we were at this what's what do you think we were talking with congressman bob ney sideswipe his book what is the main message you want people to walk away with there but the main message i think is throughout your life you know. watch