I'm a mediator, blogger (VichyDems and NeoProg-The NeoProgressive), writer, recovering litigator, and policy wonk — and husband of a landscape architect/planner; dad of two great girls (12 and 14) whose only failings are that they simultaneously shop like teenage girls and eat like teenage boys; and mountain rescue volunteer. We live in a suburb of Portland, OR.

I took my name from a character in The Iliad, which should tell you something about my politics:

"The armies took their seats, marshaled into ranks. But one man, Thersites, still railed on, nonstop, teeming with rant, insubordinate, baiting the kings. Here was the ugliest man who ever came to Troy… Now he went for majestic Agamemnon, spewing his abuse: 'What are you panting after now? Your shelter’s packed with the lion’s share of bronze, plenty of women too, crowding your lodges. Best of the lot, the beauties we hand you first, whenever we take some stronghold. Or still more gold you’re wanting? How shameful for you to lead the sons of Achaea into bloody slaughter! Home we go in our ships! Abandon him here in Troy to wallow in all his prizes – he’ll see if the likes of us have propped him up or not.'"

(Things don't turn out well for Thersites after that speech, but Homer made his living telling his stories to kings, so I put him in the same camp as Dostoevsky and others who put truth into the mouth of undesirables to give themselves plausible deniability, and hope I don't face the same end.) I'll leave it to you to decide whether the leaders I'm railing against are those in the White House or those in our own party (but here's a hint: I don't plan on quitting after Bush leaves office). I added the "D. Scott" part to distinguish myself from another Thersites (aka Thers) who's a regular poster at Daily Kos.

Oh, and I'm notoriously witty and charming and fabulously handsome; just see my avatar.

Anything else anyone wants to know, lemme know!