Mark Ellis column

Portland, Oregon, journalist and writer Mark Ellis is a reporter for the traditional values monthly the Northwest Connection and is the author of the memoir Ladder Memory, Stories from the Painting Trade.

Mark Ellis

March 11, 2014

Ask any Oregon Republican, and they'll tell you that the Dorchester Conference is where the fun is. First off, you've got the beach, and the fun City of . . .

Mark Ellis

October 15, 2013

"Why can't Johnny read?" was the question parents of school-age children used to ask about their child's education. Now, thanks to the sweeping new federally . . .

Mark Ellis

June 19, 2013

On my Mother's Day visit to the old folks at home, I said this to my 86 year old mother, a lifelong, proud Democrat: "If they pass immigration reform without  . . .

Mark Ellis

March 27, 2013

Too late for one more post-election analysis? Bear with me; I was so shocked and appalled by Mitt Romney's defeat that, but for this, I was rendered speechless. . . .

Mark Ellis

November 20, 2012

As Washington Post columnist Charles Lane wrote in his post-election piece "The 2012 Catch 22": "There are two Americas, with conflicting value systems and deep . . .

Mark Ellis

October 13, 2012

There's a saying in politics, "the cover-up is always worse than the crime." It's not always true, but it was true with Nixon and Watergate, and it was true . . .

Mark Ellis

August 27, 2012

I was a Democrat then, in 1968, having been weaned on and traumatized by the presidency of John F. Kennedy. I was sixteen, and the man I had wanted to be the . . .

Mark Ellis

July 12, 2012

While news-surfing around the web last weekend I came upon the story about the Utah child dragged out of her bed, sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered.  . . .

Mark Ellis

June 5, 2012

Where do I get off offering advice to you, Mitt Romney? I represent just one vote, but at the risk of seeming presumptive I'm going to respectfully exercise . . .

Mark Ellis

March 6, 2012

I'm damn mad at Rush Limbaugh, and I have every right. I have been listening for 20 years, am a charter subscriber to the Limbaugh Letter, and have defended him . . .

Mark Ellis

January 8, 2012

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 . . .

Mark Ellis

December 12, 2011

Here's the way it would look. In the months before Draconian new mass deportation edicts were to take effect, hundreds of thousands of the estimated 11 million . . .

Mark Ellis

November 17, 2011

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 . . .

Mark Ellis

September 17, 2011

I try never to opine angry. Whether writing about unconscionable terrorists or the shameful waste of taxpayer dollars, I strive to present my views on an even . . .

Mark Ellis

September 12, 2011

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 . . .

Mark Ellis

July 27, 2011

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 . . .

Mark Ellis

June 27, 2011

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 . . .

Mark Ellis

June 8, 2011

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 . . .

Mark Ellis

May 30, 2011

Portland's education lobby hit Multnomah County taxpayers with a double whammy in the latest installment of its long-running drama, "We need more money, again." . . .