A former contributor to Oregon's late and lamented conservative magazine Brainstorm Northwest, journalist and writer Mark Ellis has published essays, interviews, features and op-eds at the websites Daily Caller, Renew America, the Good Men Project Magazine, and in his hometown paper, the Oregonian. He is currently a contributing reporter and writer for the traditional values Portland monthly, the Northwest Connection, and is the author of the memoir, Ladder Memory, Stories from the Painting Trade.
Clackamas County Electoral Challenges Mirror Dynamic of National Election — From the May Northwest Connection There was a time, back before the Great Recession, when adherents of a green, “sustainable,” and quasi-Socialist environmental agenda made significant inroads into Clackamas County. Small groups of conservative watchdogs, like the members of Americans for Prosperity Clackamas and [...]
FOX CENTRAL The Most Powerful Dames in News Confronted by national media saturation with buzz-killing progressive women like Rachel Maddow, Tamara Holder, Anita Dunn, Diana Sawyer, et al., where do conservative guys turn to find the best and brightest women in television journalism? Since 1996 the answer has been Fox News Channel. The network had [...]
JOHN LUDLOW RAISES STAKES IN BID FOR CLACKAMAS COUNTY CHAIR: Northwest Connection Interview by Mark Ellis: With Multnomah County irrevocably under the jurisdiction of a Euro-Socialist voting bloc that resoundingly elected Tiger-Dad David Wu enabler Susan Bonamici, it increasingly falls to free-market, limited-government activists in surrounding precincts to draw battle lines aimed at keeping Portland’s [...]
Has the battle for social justice come to Lake Oswego? In terms of citizen involvement, it was a standing-room-only success. I haven’t seen them packed in like that since Dana Carvey at Roseland. But the Lake Oswego Planning Commission public hearing on lake access was no laughing matter. Judging from the testimony of the community [...]
PORTLAND: HOME OF THE NEXT SOLYNDRA? From the February Northwest Connection. Solyndra. The name has become synonymous with crony-driven, taxpayer-subsidized waste. Half a billion plus, frittered away on questionable technology driven by an even more questionable global warming theory. Millions shoveled down the sustainability hole, and they kept shoveling, right up to the end, even [...]
Saturday night’s ABC Republican debate? Awful, just awful. Any conservative who watched knows I’m not talking about the candidates. And I didn’t need to consult any postmortems from the professional pundit class to formulate my impressions of moderators George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer. I have never witnessed a better presentation of the crypto-bias that passes [...]
Forensic Accountant Locks Horns with CRC Prime Contractor: NWC interview by Mark Ellis, from the January Northwest Connection – In the November article “The Architects,” the Northwest Connection reported about what many have characterized as fiduciary opportunism and mismanagement on the part of prime contractor David Evans and Associates with regard to the proposed construction [...]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OREGONLIVE.COM 11/19/11 – The other night while paying bills and watching Hannity, I heard conservative actor and singer Robert Davi say something from the Great American Panel that made me sit up and take notice. He was trying to inject the idea of the wounded archetype into an otherwise typical political discussion [...]
It has been 60 years this Veteran’s Day since my father got notice of my birth by way of a Western Union telegram delivered to the front line on a ridge of frozen hills in Korea. He’d been drafted and sent to fight shortly after the People’s Republic of China entered the conflict and surprised [...]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NORTHWEST CONNECTION – It’s enough to boggle your mind, the machination-and-response dynamic surrounding the issue of Milwaukie Light Rail. And then you get to the dollars. $25 million laid out in promises, $47 million taken in prospective property taxes. Shortfalls, obligations, and projected costs. Wing-and-a-prayer revenue forecasts. Depleted government services vying against a “green,” sustainable, Euro-Socialist-inspired transportation system. There’s got to be a billion+ in there somewhere. [...]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN RENEW AMERICA 09/12/11 – The way I was raised you give a new president a chance even if you didn’t vote for him. But I jumped the shark on Barack Obama when he allowed Attorney General Eric Holder to make disconcerting noises about adjudicating the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad as if [...]
OREGON’S RIGHT HOLDS ANNUAL FREEDOM FEST AT AMES RANCH – A Country Fair for conservatives? The analogy is not spot-on, but is close enough to describe the rocking good time had by all at the 5th annual Gathering of the Eagles. On a mid-Willamette Valley mountaintop bathed in early August sunlight, a coalition of groups [...]
Originally published on RenewAmerica.com 07/27/11 – As a working class conservative who has experienced his share of lean times since the Great Recession began, I’m likely one of those voters that Democrats think ought to be howling at the GOP leadership about the failure of supply side economics to trickle down. By these lights, I [...]
CLOCK TICKING ON PETITION DRIVE TO STOP URBAN RENEWAL PLAN - From the August Northwest Connection Who loves you, baby? If you’re part of the governmental and bureaucratic nexus building Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail and trying to tack an urban renewal district at the end of the line, paramours are getting hard to come by. Popular [...]
CLACKAMAS CONSERVATIVES DECRY BOARD APPOINTMENT (This article first appeared in the Northwest Connection) When Governor John Kitzhaber tapped then-Clackamas County Board of Commissioners Chair Lynn Peterson to travel to Salem and become his sustainability and transportation advisor, a waiting game began. With Commissioner Charlotte Lehan moving over to take the all-important middle chair on the [...]
I do understand; Glenn Beck is not going anywhere. He’ll be around. But as of June 30th he won’t be on my television at 11pm Pacific any more, and I guess you could say I’ll miss the show. Kind of the way I missed Rod Serling’s Night Gallery when it went off the air. Come [...]
REPUBLICANS FORM SOLIDIFIED FRONT ON CNN DEBATE – Though typically an inveterate politics-watcher, especially of the GOP, I turned off the CNN analysts at the end of last night’s presidential debate to let my own impressions of what had transpired sink in. There were two takeaway moments that I knew the pundit class would focus [...]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON RENEWAMERICA.COM 06/11/08 – Marshal Matthew Dillon stood for a lot in Dodge City. Courage, principal, power, empathy, leadership. And dead-eyed accuracy with a six-shooter. But Dillon’s societal significance, his archetypal role, was that he stood for the rule of law. In a time of situational justice, craven feuds, and fast-burning gunslingers, Matt [...]
