Overview for News

Five Questions For The Show Trials

The debate over the Bush administration’s interrogation methods is really a debate over five very different questions: Did the methods work? Was it justified to use them in the circumstances of 2002? Would it be justified under the different circumstances of 2009? Were they illegal? If …

Written by David Frum on Thursday April 23, 2009

Meet The Pirate Killers

How can the Navy SEALs drop three pirates with three precision shots, thus saving Captain Richard Phillips? FrumForum.com was allowed to visit a SEAL qualification program to see how these men were trained. For six previous days, with only two periods of rest per day, each rest lasting only …

Written by Elise Cooper on Wednesday April 22, 2009

Another Reason To Save The F-22

The non-zero chance that the Chinese will hit a button and our F-35s will drop out the sky .

Written by J. Moses Browning on Wednesday April 22, 2009

Obama: Let The Show Trials Begin

President Obama is sliding toward one of the most dangerous decisions of his administration – and very possibly one of the most dangerous in the history of the American republic. Yesterday, Obama opened the door to possible prosecutions of former Bush officials. If the president’s …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday April 22, 2009

Where Was Obama's Economic Leadership?

During last year’s campaign, my favorite pessimistic Republican, Bucky Katt of Get Fuzzy told his owner Rob (a Democrat) that “your guy [Obama] puts the demo in Democrat.” We saw that in Trinidad last weekend at the Summit of the Americas, where the President missed a huge …

Written by John S. Gardner on Tuesday April 21, 2009

An "Earth" To Delight In

It’s Earth Day. Republicans can ignore it as a made-up event with links to old hippies, or we can embrace the role of stewards for our shared home. I vote for the latter. Several times in the past I have urged the GOP to put aside its aversion to a certain presidential loser/Nobel Prize …

Written by John Murdock on Tuesday April 21, 2009

Obama's New Diplomacy: Good For Him, Not So Good For America

I have just watched a TV report on the French mainstream channel TF1 which was indirectly dealing with the Guantanamo issue. Briefly, the report compared Guantanamo, a summum of horror and shame, to some Saudi "secret reeducation camp" where ex al-Qaeda operatives are gently re-civilized through …

Written by Jean Granville on Tuesday April 21, 2009

Thanks, Pat Toomey!

Former Congressman Pat Toomey recently resigned as head of the Club for Growth to run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania , setting up a primary rematch between him and incumbent Arlen Specter. As Keystone State Republicans start pondering the choice between Toomey and Specter, it is worth …

Written by David Jenkins on Tuesday April 21, 2009

Healthcare: What Liberals Really Want

Democrats are clear that they have no intention of proposing a British-style single-payer health care system this year. That said, many liberals believe that government-run health care really works. And while strategically they are willing to acknowledge the shortcomings of the Canadian and …

Written by David Gratzer on Tuesday April 21, 2009

Why Not Investigate?

"Pressure grows to investigate interrogations," the New York Times reports . And why not investigate? Are not answers better than questions? Here's why not: In Washington, there's an old rule that the process is the punishment. You don't have to convict people of any crime - you don't even …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday April 21, 2009

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue: A Compromise That Works

Lately, the debate over Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue has been heating up— letters from retired generals on both sides of the issue have been printed in national newspapers, and Defense Secretary Gates has been questioned regarding it. To the joy of the policy̵…

Written by Dustin Siggins on Monday April 20, 2009

Public Transit's Real Enemies: Big Government, Big Unions

President Barack Obama’s call for $13 billion in initial payments on a new high-speed rail system in America is likely to turn into a massive and wasteful boondoggle without the fundamental reforms that Democrats almost surely will not deliver. For example, until a recent expose in …

Written by Jeremy Carl on Monday April 20, 2009

Britains Baby Step Obesity Initiative

The British government has just announced a new initiative to reduce obesity, with the goal of being the first western country to stem the tide of this epidemic. The core idea? Sending people to their physician for an obesity check (including a calculation of their Body Mass Index, a measure …

Written by David Gratzer on Monday April 20, 2009

David's Bookshelf

I have just posted a new short book note , this on William Dean Howells' The Rise of Silas Lapham , in the bookshelf section of NewMajority. There are now almost 130 of these mini-essays . These essays should be especially valuable I think to the desperate high school or college student …

Written by David Frum on Sunday April 19, 2009

Worst Earnings Drop In Modern History

Fortune is reporting an average 85% drop in earnings at Fortune 500 companies in 2008, the worst report since the series commenced 55 years ago. This week's tea parties demonstrated that the GOP retains an activist base. (Although to put that base in context, the highest estimate of the total …

Written by David Frum on Sunday April 19, 2009

Oppose Obama's Immigration Plans

At his joint press conference today with Mexican president Felipe Calderon , President Barack Obama reminded listeners of his two votes for immigration measures that included amnesty – and then declared his continuing support for the so-called comprehensive approach. These statements do …

Written by David Frum on Thursday April 16, 2009

Lessons Unlearned

Give Pat Toomey credit for this: The declared challenger for the GOP nomination for Arlen Specter's Senate seat is willing to bet a career on a proposition that other conservatives only assert from the safety of the sidelines. Toomey is betting that Republicans would do better in a blue-lean…

Written by David Frum on Thursday April 16, 2009

Learn From Cameron?

Are these not conservative thoughts? Refusing to use these words - right and wrong - means a denial of personal responsibility and the concept of a moral choice. We talk about people being “at risk of obesity” instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too …

Written by David Gratzer on Wednesday April 15, 2009

Duncan Flunks His Education Test

My latest column for The Week concerns the shameful asphyxiation of the DC voucher pilot program. Education Secretary Arne Duncan came to Washington with claims to be a reformer. The destruction of the voucher program by Congress was his first test. He flunked. Rather than stop …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday April 15, 2009

If Nukes Are Outlawed...

...Only outlaw states will have nukes; My column in today's National Post deals with President Obama's Prague speech: Can President Obama seriously imagine that a U. S. testing moratorium will inspire equal restraint in North Korea and Iran ? It's impossible that he can be …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday April 15, 2009