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User talk:Isomorphic/archive1

Older comments
Hi Isomorphic :) I hope you like the place and choose to stay. (I love your username! What are you isomorphic to?)

Some links that may be of use:
 * Welcome, newcomers
 * How to edit a page
 * Village pump - ask questions you may have here, or leave a message on my talk page

Thanks, and keep contributing :) Dysprosia 07:40, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for rewriting Open source intelligence. I moved your temp version to Open source intelligence now and deleted the original. Angela. 06:18, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

No problem, glad to do it. The article could still use work, but it gives the basics at least. Isomorphic 03:54, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hey, you said in my talk page that I am better at formatting pages then you, and I can contribute to wikipedia. Wanna make an article or something? Epheterson 03:40, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi Isomorphi,

Thanks for your remarks on my talk page.

I think Wikipedia folks need to take it easy on newcomers who create profile pages on the main directory. Gently inform them that the info belongs on the uers provile, not on the encyclopedic directory.

Also, I ask you for some slack on me. How many people join Wikipedia having condemplated founding an encyclopedia themselves?

Okay, so I'm a bit ambitious. Just work with me, but don't shun me for exuberance alone.

I sense that now that you've had a chance to review my site you can see that I am capable of objective reporting.

Here is the latest press release I've composed, as another sample of what I can do with the subject of alternative energy:

Genesis World Energy Under Investigation for Fraud - NJ Attorney General's office engaged in full investigation into likely securities fraud. Eyewitnesses say one of the bench-top model used by GWE for proof of concept demos is nothing more than a slight modification of a fuel cell device sold at Hammacher Schlemmer.

Would you now consider going into the vote:delete page and reversing your position?

Thanks

Sterlingda 07:19, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Your comment on my user_talk page indicates you would consider changing your vote on the Free Energy Project Control Panel. Why not go ahead and do it. Since you are the one who first suggested the page be deleted, that would make a statement as to it value upon further consideration.

Thanks for your advice. It is good advice.

Sterlingda 07:40, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi. You should stick new user messages on their talk pages, not in their user pages. Secretlondon 17:24, Jan 1, 2004 (UTC) - As a quick question, why was the text you removed from auction a self-contradiction? There are two sorts of equivalences to auctions: theoretical equivalence (which refers to the behavior of profit-maximizing, rational agents) and practical equivalence (what happens when human beings, or at least participants in an experiment, bid). In this case "theoretically equivalent" has a meaning apart from "not in practice equivalent" --kevinatilusa

Hey Isomorphic

Thanks for the encouragement. It's nice to see what a supportive community you guys are building here at wikipedia. I really am just a high school student (a junior now), but I study a lot of stuff that interests me on my own time. See you around. Jcobb 04:26, Feb 21, 2004 (UTC)

Request for Comments on Plautus satire
Your comments are requested on Requests for comment/Plautus satire. →Raul654 05:14, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the heads-up. I'll be sure to mention it; it's a good idea. Cheers, Meelar 05:53, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thank you for the welcome No Guru 17:09, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome. I'll be pottering around improving New Zealand entries mainly, with more reciprocal links to and from www.zeal.com.:robinp 21:23, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Not that I'm offended at all, and I greatly appreciate your defending me to Plautus (I can't figure out where PS's hostility came from), but in the interests of the truth....I'm a "he", not a "she". :-) Thanks again for your well-chosen words on Plautus's talk page -- keep it up! We need more like you, regardless of gender. ;-) Jwrosenzweig 22:28, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thank You
Thank you for your kind message welcoming me to Wikipedia. In the short time I have been here I have found that the people are very freindly. Oh and Motorola 68008 won't be my last time doing dirty work lol ;). Theyapps 05:46, Feb 20, 2004 (UTC) <:) thanx for lesson 2 :)

Wait a sec
Isomorphic - you're on the Maryland quiz bowl team? I assume that's Adam Fine's team you're talking about. Cool! - I'm on the Delaware team (w/ Roger Craig and company). →Raul654 05:35, Feb 20, 2004 (UTC)

Hats
Thanks for the heads up, the hats and headgear team just doubled in size! I've added the new-user-introductions page to my watchlist (when I heard of it the other day I thought it was a dumb idea, how wrong could I have been?) and I will check it for hat people every day from now on. ;) fabiform | talk 20:15, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Plautus
Iso: I'll tell you what I told Jamesday - it appears that Plautus has decided to ignore what you have told him, and has instead decided to take to expand his tin-foil hattery vandalism to include several other articles. His talk page shows that talking with him in an excercise in frustration. I think you might want to reconsider your vote at Requests for comment/Plautus satire. →Raul654 04:18, Feb 21, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the kind welcome. User:Joe_Cetina

Oddly enough
Actually, that's not me. I know that my IP's something else...though, I did see alot of 207's around. Thanks for asking though! I'll probably add in my previous edits though. User:Parelle

Oh, I'm a tad concerned myself...whomever 207 is, they're doing exactly what i'm doing, down to the massive number of random female hobbits. They also corrected my entry on Merry brandybuck, and i'd just written that at the time....

Or then again, perhaps a shadow. Though, I'd have to admit, they're more through than I - they did catch some of my typos, and the ablity to find the most amazingly unknown hobbits surely takes more talent...if they would actually register, now that would make it easier!

Hey man. Thanks for the welcome. I'm actually seeding a bunch of articles for the course we're going to run (as well as on electronic/computer music topics in general). The course won't be run until September, which gives me a bit of time to get up a few things on the site. Rev3rend 08:11, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hi, Isomorphic, thanks (to you and Angela) for the kind and encouraging welcome. I looked at the climate page and agree with the objections about the Koppen's classification making ~80% of the article. The page will also need to cover more topics on climate. I'll discuss this in the page discussion and eventually make the edits when I get to it. Matt Borak 22:44, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing Popa Chubby! Mark Richards 21:53, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Once again user talk:bensaccount, quit complaining on my talk page, I only create the definitions I need for the articles I edit. If you dont like inhalation or exhalation, stop breathing (the page) as well.

 * As a neutral observer, allow me to point you to the relavant policy - Wikipedia is not a dictionary. →Raul654 03:38, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)

 * This is not a policy, read it again! Bensaccount 03:54, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * Let me put it another way - if I were to list those pages on the VFD right now, I guarentee they would be deleted as "dictionary definitions." They need to be expanded or deleted. →Raul654 03:58, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)

Iso, thanks for the nice welcome and useful introduction. --Rj 05:45, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)

So unifying conjecture survives VfD. I think that process is flawed; but you might anyway like to see the page now that I have tried to pin down the good that can be found in the concept.

Charles Matthews 12:45, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Delete pages
Hi, thanks for catching some of the nonsense pages that are created. However, rather than blanking them, paste on top of the article  . That way admins can track and delete them more easily. Dori | Talk 19:52, Mar 1, 2004 (UTC)

---

Thanks for the kind welcome to the welcoming comittee! I remember being confused when I was new, so I thought I should help out here. By the way is there any official forum or meetingplace for this group? Ludraman, 2027, 1/3/04.

I have just been reading through the Welcoming committe talk page and you make some pretty good points. About your Wikipedia tutorial, I fully agree with the idea. I say we just set up a page and start making it. One important thing is to keep it in one long article - the way it is you have to follow a scatter of links to pick up information. How about creating the page - I know I would spend a good while writing it with other users. What do you think? Ludraman, 2040, 1/3/04.

Thanks
Thanks for the nice welcome message. Indeed, I have a question: What is the recommended way to make footnotes? See e.g. Debian and Talk:Debian for the way I figured out to produce some. Haven't found anything on footnotes yet in the help. --XTaran 23:28, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Admin nomination
Hey Mark - just to let you know, Perl nominated you for adminship. It looks like it's going to sail through, too, you just need to officially accept it. I'd like to offer (premature) congradulations and best wishes for a happy admin career. →Raul654 05:34, Mar 2, 2004 (UTC)

Congrats - you definitely deserve it and at 10 supporting, nil against - you're in. I'm hoping to become a sysop in the near future - what do you think? Ludraman 19:34, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Congratulations. You will make an excellent admin! Perl 02:14, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

DSHIT
Hey Mark - I'll be moderating at DSHIT on saturday. You gonna be there? →Raul654 05:13, Mar 4, 2004 (UTC)

Kayless, Keiless, etc.
Yeah, it is probably a bit much; it's just that I was thinking of when I'd first heard of him watching the show but wasn't able to find any information online because I didn't know how the name was spelled. -- Djinn112 03:46, Mar 5, 2004 (UTC)

re: Dagestan
The article was nothing but a revert war. It also looked to me like that guy was just taking the cyrillic script out, not replacing it with another version. He also vandalized Wik's page, and kept blanking his own talk page when other people told him to act more reasonably. He can continue his work on the talk page. I'll let the protection stand for a while. You can ask another administrator to unprotect it if you want. Dori | Talk 01:49, Mar 8, 2004 (UTC)

re: School project
Thanks for the pointer to the school projects page - I think my assignment was in the spirit of the 'pedia, and am not overly worried about the students marauding through, writing crap. Still, good to get some collected experience. Espen 11:59, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Sysop
Congratulations! You are now an administrator. You should read the relevant policies and other pages linked to from the administrators' reading list before carrying out tasks like deletion, protection, banning users, and editing protected pages such as the Main Page. Most of what you do is easily reversible by other sysops, apart from page history merges and image deletion, so please be especially careful with those. Good luck. Angela. 00:11, Mar 9, 2004 (UTC)
 * Congratulations! Perl 00:23, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hello

I have noticed that you have made valuable contributions to economics pages from time to time. You might be interested to know that there is an economics article Labor market nominated for Featured article candidates. If you have the time, could you take a look and leave any comments that you feel are appropriate. mydogategodshat 04:10, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the contribution to labour market. You can also leave comments at Featured article candidates if you wish. mydogategodshat 07:13, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

You should feel free to revert any Bird-related edits. There is not much worth keeping. Fuzheado 07:05, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the welcome.

I'll see what I can do for African history. I noticed that the History of Spain was pretty shabby after the Medieval period, so I thought I'd give that a try too. I'm presently reading a work on the history of West Africa (which, by my impression, seems to be where most African history happened outside the Med. coast.) so we might be in luck.

But thank you again, and to all the admins, for their work on Wikipedia. I think it's an magnificent and worthwhile project.

Adam Faanes 17:27, 10 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi Isomorphic. I took the liberty of redrawing the graphs on Labour economics so that the lines are thinner and the text easier to read. I also moved Labour economics into the section on Featured article candidates for nominations with unresolved objections. I couldn't really tell from your comments whether you were objecting to the article or not, but if I misinterpretted you, or the new graphs improve the article for you, then you should put the nomination back up into the "no objections" category. And, if you prefer the old graphs, feel free to revert of course. :) fabiform | talk 03:51, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the note on my talk page. I realised my Irish breakfast entry did not conform to the naming conventions (I'd capitalised the second word), so I moved/renamed the entry. I had already submitted it a while back! I've read much more of the relevant "learner" pages now though! Zoney 14:04, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the warm welcome I recieved on my talk page. DryGrain 19:43, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

First, thanks for your welcome message. I love the sense of acceptance it gives. I really think that people are more likely to stay in a group when it's immediately obvious that they've been noticed.

Just a quick question on user talk ettiquette: is there a preffered place to respond to these messages (ie. the user talk page with the original message or the page of the person being responded to)? It seems logical to keep discussions to a single page, but it seems to me you'll be more likely to see a message on your own talk page.

As for finding subjects to write about, if the stacks of books in every room of my house are anything to go by, I shouldn't have difficulty. rparle 20:23, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC)

Interlang links, translation project
Greetings, and thanks for the welcome. Quiz bowl ad eternum! What I really was getting at w/ the interlang links is:
 * 1) the person making the link often makes small mistakes -- linking an adjective in en: to an adverb in de: or even to a noun; linking a political movement to a particular political group w/ similar name; etc.
 * 2) the translations need to somehow be kept up to date.
 * 3) some arts are pure translation -- ja: has no info (online, in its userbase) to reproduce the version in fr:, so it needs an expert fr:-->ja: translator to really get the target art right; a partial transl is good, but should somehow be noted as imperfect
 * 4) there's no way to request a translated art -- or to see that one exists in other langs for translation.

Potential Solutions:
 * 1) an interlang "requested pages" special page, which provides some automated translation of each page name into your preferred language; it would be awesome to see that irony was a much-requested but absent page in es:, with a link to the es: page and one to possibly-matching en: and fr: pages.
 * 2) multi-lingual / synonym searching for a matching title, so you can say "search for all synonyms of 'cake'" or "search fo 'cake' in de: and fr:" and see how many possibly-related art titles exist.
 * 3) a translator project that works over major arts, from largest categories and most popular topics down, and tries to unify
 * 4) * category structure / distribution
 * 5) * category substructure / naming conventions
 * 6) * navigation and template structure
 * 7) * lang links [many arts are linked from en: when they are translated to a new lang, but if they are already in 4 langs, the other 3 langs don't get the new trans-lang link]
 * 8) * quality assurance (maintenance of lists of "partly-" and "barely-translated" arts to help translators who want to find arts for language copyediting)
 * 9) a lock-step 'recent changes' setup which makes merging the latest changes from a variety of langs easy.  For instance: Marilyn Monroe gets heavily updated, independently, in 4 langs.  A potential translator comes along... The following are answerable questions, particularly if we use en: as a lingua franca(sic) and accept piecemeal updating of the en: version to/from each other lang --
 * 10) * Who merges these updates?
 * 11) * When was the last time the various arts were unified?
 * 12) * What is the diff b/t the current rev and the last-unified rev, for en: and a given lang?
 * 13) * Is one lang particularly out of date?
 * 14) * Which translators / contributors were interested in this art at some point?

Is there already a project page about this? My lang skills are broad and poor, not good enough to spearhead any kind of translation, but I would be glad to sharpen them on such a project, half an hour at a time, and bet many other WPans would too. +sj+ 20:52, 2004 Mar 12 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the info. As long as you don't throw any bottles at me, you terps are fine by me :p.

Drunkasian 18:18, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Academic Challenger and Adminship
Hi Isomorphic. Thanks for taking an interest in my request for adminship. Since there will not be a consensus on my nomination, and I realize now that I don't need to be an admin right now, I will withdraw my nomination. I am starting to do some housekeeping-type work, like fixing some articles at Cleanup. I may try to become an admin again in a few mohnths, but I realize why I do not need to become one now. I am glad that you like my contributions. I admit that part of the reason I nominated myself was to see what people thought of my contributions. Again, thank you for your time and interest. Academic Challenger 10:31, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Getting a timestamp
Hi. Can you further elaborate what you mean by "You can sign your name on talk pages by using " Moncrief " for your username and " Moncrief 05:12, Mar 14, 2004 (UTC) " for your username and a timestamp." That's not clear to me. I've trying to figure out how to get an automatic timestamp since I've been editing here, at least two or three months now. I'm still adding it manually, which is kind of a pan. Thanks. Moncrief, 14 Mar 2004

HA HA ! It worked!! That's all I need to do huh?? 4 tildes, quite literally?? Fascinating. Trying it again---> " Moncrief 05:14, Mar 14, 2004 (UTC) "

Sergeant Major
I hope my small revision is in some way a help.

Paul, in Saudi

Latin
After seeing some Latin on your page, I'm wondering: How much Latin do you know? Do you make any edits on the Latin Wikipedia? The Latin Wikipedia could really use improvement, so c'mon down! Vicipaedia Latina magna est! Ludraman | Talk 20:27, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Leet Speak
Hey Mark - you should know - Leet speak is now officially punishable by death ;) →Raul654 07:30, Mar 17, 2004 (UTC)

Boilerplate welcome
You don't mind if I take your welcome boilerplate and change it around? I might save a copy on one of my pages after I've changed a few things. Ludraman | Talk 15:58, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Zzfly123
That IS odd. --Merovingian ↕ Talk 05:27, Mar 19, 2004 (UTC)

PS. Sorry about the User page edit.

Deletion
It's always fun when two people delete the same page at the same time. --Merovingian ↕ Talk 03:55, Mar 20, 2004 (UTC)

 * Don't we all... all... all? --Merovingian ↕ Talk 04:23, Mar 20, 2004 (UTC)

Comments invited
Hi Isomorphic, thanks for the welcome. I have been busy adding pages about cycles. If you wanted to cast an eye over them and make any comments about style etc it would be welcome. I have too many as yet unresoolved links. I have had a disagreement about cycle or cycles and there is discussion under talk:cycle. RayTomes 10:38, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi Isomorphic Its me again. I have looked through the list of people with various interests and found you in several places that I am also interested in. I want to ask you about a couple of items that I would like to do for wikipedia before I do them, but right now would ask you to have a look at a couple of items for your views. I am new to wiki and wikipedia and am having some differences of opinions with User:IMSoP but in a civilised way. The places to view if you are willing are cycles and talk:cycle plus links that he put from there. Thanks, RayTomes 10:20, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Picture tutorial
Mark - I've written Picture tutorial, which should help new users grasp the fundemental of wikiformat pictures. I'd recommend you add it to the manual you've been working on. →Raul654 08:31, Mar 26, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the compliment
Thanks for the support and nice words. I needed a little ego boost. :) Makes it worthwhile being in this community! Cecropia 01:15, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Nyah!
How dare you ask for actual information! I demand unclear and vague articles! :P - Texture 16:54, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Welcoming Committee
You're probably right... guess I got a little overzealous ;) --Wolf530 06:15, Mar 30, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the welcome, Isomorphic. I'm absolutely new at this, so I'm sure I'll have questions. Physicist 06:33, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Derbent
I have removed Derbent from Copyright problems since permission was granted to use the text. Shall I delete Derbent/Temp? - Texture 15:56, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Gadfium
Thanks for the welcome, and the cleanup of my article on Michael King. I realise that's how things work here - someone puts in a stub and others fill in details and improve the Wikification of it, and the original person learns a bit more of the Wikipedia culture and can do better on their next article.

Do you have a particular interest in King, or were you simply checking out new articles? Gadfium 23:10, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

CryptoDerk
Hi, thanks for the welcome. I'm happy to see that my talk page works. When I jump into something, I jump into it full force. So, I'm finishing up my masters thesis and I'm still finding a lot of time to fool around on here, heh (perhaps to the detriment of my thesis). I'm all about free knowledge, and even wrote a book on programming in C for the classes I teach, which is of course freely available online. I am a huge proponent of putting everything online, and I hope to make some good contributions here. CryptoDerk 07:42, Mar 31, 2004 (UTC)

Dan Matic
'ello. Thanks for the greeting. I thought someone just assumed I knew what I was doing, and left me to it. :) Dan Matic 10:02, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Sunset
Thanks Iso! Mark Richards 22:04, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

disturbing behavior?
How is it disturbing behavior to change usernames? My name is clearly indicated on my contact information page. If you are too lazy to click on that to see what my name is, why are you complaining about others behavior. (sorry if that sounded rude) I changed names because I didn't like people (wik) insulting me all the time. Perl 15:29, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome
You can be sure I will stick around.

On stubs
Thanks for the thanks. The comments are left largely for Matt Crypto and myself. He has been furiously adding material in this past month (and seems to have taken a bit of a vacation in the last few days; exams??) and I've been at it (largely in crypto stuff) for a couple of years, though nothing like so furiously. As a result of the reorganizations of the past month, lots of folks who had 'sort of been paying attention' to crypto topics may now be lost, and the stubs/pointers may be useful to them as well.

But, since you're an administrator, and have brought up this issue, you may be able to suggest an official way to leave pointers for future editing, avoiding the Talk page which 'takes longer'. Or is the only official way the Talk page?

ww 19:44, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Isomorphic, Having interacted above, it occurs to me to ask whether there is any point in being an administrator. I notice that I have been contributing for just about 2 years, and that some I've interacted with who are administrators have been here for much shorter times. Am I missing something here? Comment would be appreciated. ww 20:40, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

There is an agreed convention that bird articles are capitalised, with an obligatory American style lowercase redirect. All the hundreds of bird articles have been written in accordance with this convention. I'll track down the location of the convention, but it may be some time. jimfbleak

 * WikiProject_Birds gives the convention, although I can't remember where the original of the policy is. There are some other groups like cetaceans which have de facto signed up to the bird style. Jim

Hello. I got your message on my talk page, but I've had no time to answer until now. Right now, studying maths all day is enough for me, since it consumes me and all of my time. But I'll see what can I do when (and if) I have some free time. Por cierto, ¿habla usted español? No lo sabía. If you want to practice your Spanish, well, I speak Spanish too. --Fibonacci 02:44, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thank you for your welcome message! I'm happy to see the articles on the Boulangers. For the last couple days I've been bubbling over with enthusiasm about Wikipedia to various friends; hopefully I can turn some of that enthusiasm into writing in my (not) copious spare time. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions ... but so far the documentation and examples have been superb. Be well! Antandrus 01:39, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

admining
Isomorphic,

I've thought it over and what the heck.... I blundered across the WP, and just started out to improve the article on cryptography. From there I went to Pearl Harbor and it grew... I suspect that's not too different than many folks. Now I'm not too sure I will be a very active admin in policing others, and I haven't run across much vandalism myself, but I'm willing to give it a try.

So whatever vetting needs to be done...

Thanks, ww 23:33, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Isomorphic,

 * Thanks for the nomination, and the trouble of looking through a long and somewhat singleminded list of edits. You are incorrect, however, that I have not been involved in some WP controversies. A glance at (archived) discussion at Talk:philosophy of science, and mostly the same at Talk:scientific method, will disclose an ongoing disagreement as to the content of those articles. In the second case, it has gone so far as an NPOV header. And a look at Talk:cryptography will show another, this time over style/coverage/details, and similar matters. In both cases the main (not the right word exactly, but I can't come up with a better in eitehr case) 'disputant' is a single person, and nothing has gone to the level of an edit war or anything similar. I have little to feel inappropriate about in my contributions in either case (over many months in the first and almost a month in the second), but their existence may be relevant, now that you bring them up.

 * As for 'enemies', I'm aware of none.

 * ww 15:40, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * Isomorphic,

 * Just looked at requests for admin, and I blush.... Modesty, after all. The only factual problem I see is with what you've written is that the earliest edit I was able to find (when it occurred to me to go looking a month or two ago) was an anonymous one in April 03. But I think I remember some before that (maybe in Feb). If that matters at all...

 * Thanks again.

 * ww 15:54, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

--

Thanks for the welcome message and for answering my question. See you around ;) --Voodoo 01:20, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hi, Isomorphic. The other shoe finally dropped. Thanks for your defense of me and kind words. Cecropia 01:35, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Sage advice, indeed! Thanks again. Cecropia 02:11, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

WikiProject Architecture
Hi Isomorphic Wikiproject:Architecture sounds like a great idea. I'll start thinking of some ideas. Naming and dating conventions seem like the biggest problems, offhand. Warofdreams 01:37, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I've made a start. Would you like to add your name, and initiate some debate? Warofdreams 02:45, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Translation
Done! It's probably sloppy, but I did what I could. If you'd give it a brief look, I'd love that: if it looks right, it would be great if you'd move your request to completed on the Translations page (sorry to delegate! I promise I'm not as lazy as that seems, but I'm taking off in a few minutes :-). Oh, and I encourage you to use your mighty admin powers for awesome. ;-) Have a great day, see you around the 'pedia, keep up the excellent work! Jwrosenzweig 19:51, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Isomorphic/archive1


text:
Talk:European Convention on Nationality

[Untitled]
Hello,

I am the son of a woman who moved from England at 18, became a us citizen, married and had me as child. I am a us citizen but am researching if I have the blood right by law to have dual citizenship?

-M in San francisco

There should be a section on the situation of the Convention in the various European states, that is, which states have nationality laws already conforming to the convention, which states don't, and out of these, which ones plan to eventually conform.

 * See British nationality law.  If you were born in 1983 or later you may well be British automatically, if born between 8 February 1961 and 31 December 1982, you may be eligible to register as a British citizen.   JAJ 15:50, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Convention link
It would be better to link to this page: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=166&CM=1&DF=7/5/2007&CL=ENG which has the signatures and ratifications as well as the text.

88.23.95.83 20:39, 5 July 2007 (UTC)James Wimberley

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:European Convention on Nationality


text:
Emin Pasha

Mehmed Emin Pasha (born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer, baptized Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer; March 28, 1840 – October 23, 1892) was an Ottoman physician of German Jewish origin, naturalist, and governor of the Egyptian province of Equatoria on the upper Nile. The Ottoman Empire conferred the title "Pasha" on him in 1886, and thereafter he was referred to as "Emin Pasha".

Life and career
Emin was born in Oppeln (in present-day Poland), Silesia, into a middle-class German Jewish family, who moved to Neisse when he was two years old. After the death of his father in 1845, his mother married a Christian; she and her children were baptized Lutherans. He was a student at the Kolegium Carolinum Neisse in Nysa, Poland, at the universities at Breslau, Königsberg, and Berlin, qualifying as a physician in 1864. However, he was disqualified from practice, and left Germany for Constantinople, with the intention of entering Ottoman service.

Travelling via Vienna and Trieste, he stopped at Antivari in Montenegro, found himself welcomed by the local community, and was soon practicing medicine. He put his linguistic talent to good use, as well, adding Turkish, Albanian, and Greek to his repertoire of languages. He became the quarantine officer of the port, leaving only in 1870 to join the staff of Ismail Hakki Pasha, governor of northern Albania; in the service, he travelled throughout the Ottoman Empire, although the details are little-known.

When Hakki Pasha died in 1873, Emin went back to Neisse with the pasha's widow and children, where he passed them off as his own family, but left suddenly in September 1875, reappearing in Cairo and then departing for Khartoum, where he arrived in December. At this point he took the name "Mehemet Emin" (Arabic Muhammad al-Amin), started a medical practice, and began collecting plants, animals, and birds, many of which he sent to museums in Europe. Although some regarded him as a Muslim, it is not clear if he ever actually converted.

Charles George Gordon (‘Gordon of Khartoum’), then governor of Equatoria, heard of Emin's presence and invited him to be the chief medical officer of the province; Emin assented and arrived there in May 1876. Gordon immediately sent Emin on diplomatic missions to Bunyoro and to Muteesa I of Buganda to the south, where Emin's modest style and fluency in Luganda were quite popular. After 1876, Emin made Lado his base for collecting expeditions throughout the region. In 1878, the Khedive of Egypt appointed Emin as Gordon's successor to govern the province, giving him the title of Bey. Despite the grand title, there was little for Emin to do; his military force consisted of a few thousand soldiers who controlled no more than a mile's radius around each of their outposts, and the government in Khartoum was indifferent to his proposals for development. He showed himself to be a bitter foe of slavery. In 1879 General Gordon gave Frank Lupton command of a flotilla of river steamers to relieve Emin. When Lupton reached Lado almost two years later he found that Emin did not want to be relieved. He became Emin's deputy, in charge of the Latuka district based at Tarangole.

The revolt of Muhammad Ahmad that began in 1881 had cut Equatoria off from the outside world by 1883, and the following year, Karam Allah marched south to capture Equatoria and Emin. In 1885, Emin and most of his forces withdrew further south, to Wadelai near Lake Albert. Cut off from communications to the north, he was still able to exchange mail with Zanzibar through Buganda. Determined to remain in Equatoria, his communiques, carried by his friend Wilhelm Junker, aroused considerable sentiment in Europe in 1886, particularly acute after the death of Gordon the previous year.

The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, led by Henry Morton Stanley, undertook to rescue Emin by going up the Congo River and then through the Ituri Forest, an extraordinarily difficult route that resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the expedition. Precise details of this trek are recorded in the published diaries of the expedition's non-African "officers" (e.g., Major Edmund Musgrave Barttelot, Captain William Grant Stairs, Mr. Arthur Jephson, and Thomas Heazle Parke, surgeon of the expedition). Stanley met Emin in April 1888, and after a year spent in argument and indecision, during which Emin and Jephson were imprisoned at Dufile by troops who mutinied from August to November 1888, Emin was convinced to leave for the coast. The bulk of his forces remained near Lake Albert until 1890, when Frederick Lugard took them with him to Kampala Hill, where they participated in the Battle of Kampala Hill. Stanley and Emin arrived in Bagamoyo in 1890. During celebrations, Emin was injured when he stepped through a window he mistook for an opening to a balcony. Emin spent two months in a hospital recovering, while Stanley left without being able to bring him back in triumph.

The introduction of sleeping sickness in Uganda was attributed to the movement of Emin and his followers. Prior to the 1890s, sleeping sickness was unknown in Uganda, but the tsetse fly was probably brought by Emin from the Congo territory.

Emin then entered the service of the German East Africa Company and accompanied Dr. Stuhlmann on an expedition to the lakes in the interior, but was killed by two Arab slave traders at Kinena Station in the Congo Free State, near Nyangwe, on 23 or 24 October 1892.

Legacy
He added greatly to the anthropological knowledge of central Africa and published valuable geographical papers. In 1890 he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.

Emin Pasha is commemorated in the scientific name of an East African species of leptotyphlopid snake, Emin Pasha's worm snake Leptotyphlops emini, and an East African species of Passer sparrow, the chestnut sparrow Passer eminibey. He is also honoured in both the specific name and common name of Emin's shrike (Lanius gubernator), the specific name means governor.

title: Emin Pasha


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Bill Nelson

Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States senator from Florida from 2001 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1972 to 1978 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. In January 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of U.S. Congress to fly in space, after Senator Jake Garn, when he served as a payload specialist on mission STS-61-C aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Before entering politics he served in the U.S. Army Reserve during the Vietnam War.

Nelson retired from Congress in 1990 to run for governor of Florida, but was unsuccessful. He was later elected Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida, serving from 1995 to 2001. In 2000, Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate seat that had been vacated by retiring Republican senator Connie Mack III with 51% of the vote. He was reelected in 2006 with 60% of the vote and in 2012 with 55% of the vote. Nelson ran in 2018 for a fourth term, but was narrowly defeated in the general election by then-Governor Rick Scott. In May 2019, Nelson was appointed to serve on NASA's advisory council.

In the U.S. Senate, Nelson was generally considered a centrist and a moderate Democrat. Nelson supported same-sex marriage, lowering taxes on lower and middle income families, expanding environmental programs and regulation, protecting the Affordable Care Act, and expanding Medicaid. Nelson chaired the Senate Aging Committee from 2013 to 2015, and served as ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee from 2015 to 2019.

On March 19, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Nelson to the position of NASA administrator. Nelson was confirmed by unanimous consent by the Senate on April 29, 2021, and was sworn in by vice president Kamala Harris on May 3, 2021.

Early life and education
Nelson was born on September 29, 1942, in Miami, Florida, the only child of Nannie Merle and Clarence William Nelson. His father was a real estate investor and a lawyer. He is of Scottish, Irish, English, and Danish descent. His father died of a heart attack when Nelson was 14 and his mother of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) when he was 24. Nelson grew up in Melbourne, Florida, where he attended Melbourne High School.

Nelson attended Baptist and Episcopal churches but later was baptized through immersion in a Baptist church. He served as International President of Kiwanis-sponsored Key Club International (1959–1960). In 2005, he joined the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando.

Nelson attended the University of Florida, where he was a member of Florida Blue Key and Beta Theta Pi social fraternity. He transferred to Yale University after two years at the University of Florida. At Yale he would be roommates with Bruce Smathers, the son of Florida senator George Smathers. Nelson received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in political science from Yale University in 1965 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia in 1968.

In 1965, during the Vietnam War, Nelson joined the United States Army Reserve. He served on active duty from 1968 to 1970, attaining the rank of captain, and he remained in the Army until 1971. Nelson was admitted to the Florida bar in 1968, and began practicing law in Melbourne in 1970. In 1971, he worked as legislative assistant to Governor Reubin Askew.

Space Shuttle Columbia
In 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of Congress (and the first member of the House) to travel into space. He went through NASA training with Senator Jake Garn of Utah. Nelson was a Payload Specialist on 's STS-61-C mission from January 12 to 18, 1986. This mission was the last successful Space Shuttle flight prior to the Challenger accident, which occurred ten days after the end of this mission. In 1988, Nelson published a book about his space flight experience entitled Mission: An American Congressman's Voyage to Space.

Florida Legislature
In 1972, Nelson was elected to the Florida House of Representatives as the member from the 47th district, representing much of Brevard County and portions of Orange County and Seminole County. He won reelection in 1974 and 1976.

U.S. House of Representatives
Nelson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 in the open 9th congressional district after the five-term Republican incumbent, Louis Frey Jr., chose to run for governor of Florida rather than for reelection.

In 1980, Nelson was reelected to that district, which encompassed all of Brevard and part of Orange County. He was redistricted to the 11th congressional district, encompassing all of Brevard and parts of Orange, Indian River, and Osceola counties; he won reelection in 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988. He remained a member of the U.S. House of Representatives until 1991.

Nelson chaired the House Space Subcommittee for six years as a key member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. His district included Cape Canaveral and its space facility. In 1988, Bill Nelson criticized President Reagan's policy to export American satellites for launch on China's Long March rockets. Nelson called this an "inconsistent administration policy." Nelson stated that Reagan "wanted to build up commercial space ventures, and on the other hand, he is cutting off the commercial space ventures at the knees with these export licenses."

1990 gubernatorial election
In 1990, Nelson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida. His primary rival was former U.S. senator Lawton Chiles. During the campaign, the younger Nelson tried to highlight Chiles' age and use of Prozac to treat his depression, but this proved to be an unpopular strategy, and Nelson lost by a wide margin, getting 30.5% of the vote to Chiles' 69.5%. Chiles went on to win the general election.

Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal

In 1994, Nelson announced his intention to seek the office of Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida. He won the election with 52% of the vote over State Rep. Tim Ireland's 48%. In 1998, he won re-election to the office, again defeating Ireland.

In 2000, Nelson announced that he would be running for the United States Senate seat held by retiring Republican Connie Mack III. Florida's resign-to-run law compelled Nelson to submit his resignation as Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal early in 2000 when he began to campaign for the U.S. Senate seat. He chose January 3, 2001, as the effective date of his resignation, as that was the date on which new senators would be sworn in.

2000

In 2000, Nelson ran as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican senator Connie Mack III. He won the election, defeating U.S. representative Bill McCollum, who ran as the Republican candidate.

2006
Following the 2004 election, in which Republican George W. Bush was re-elected and the Republican Party increased its majority in both the House and the Senate, Nelson was seen as vulnerable. He was a Democrat in a state that Bush had won, though by a margin of only five percentage points.

Evangelical Christian activist James Dobson declared that Democrats, including Nelson, would be "in the 'bull's-eye'" if they supported efforts to block Bush's judicial nominees. Nelson's refusal to support efforts in Congress to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case was seen as "a great political issue" for a Republican opponent to use in mobilizing Christian conservatives against him.

Katherine Harris, the former Florida secretary of state and two-term U.S. representative, defeated three other candidates in the September 5 Republican primary. Harris's role in the 2000 presidential election made her a polarizing figure. Many Florida Republicans were eager to reward her for her perceived party loyalty in the Bush-Gore election, while many Florida Democrats were eager to vote against her for the same reason. In May, when the party found itself unable to recruit a candidate who could defeat Harris in the primary, many Republican activists admitted that the race was already lost.

Nelson focused on safe issues, portraying himself as a bipartisan centrist problem-solver. He obtained the endorsement of all 22 of Florida's daily newspapers. Harris failed to secure the endorsement of Jeb Bush, who publicly stated that she could not win; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had supported her in her House campaigns, did not endorse her in this race.

As the election approached, polls showed Harris trailing Nelson by 26 to 35 points. Nelson transferred about $16.5 million in campaign funds to other Democratic candidates, and won the election with 2,890,548 votes to Harris's 1,826,127 votes. He won 57 out of the state's 67 counties.

2012
Vice President Joe Biden called Nelson crucial to President Obama's chances for winning Florida in 2012. In March 2011, Biden was reported as having said that if Nelson lost in 2012, "it means President Obama and the Democratic presidential ticket won't win the key battleground state, either." Congressman Connie Mack IV, the son of Nelson's direct predecessor in the Senate, won the Republican nomination. Nelson eventually defeated Mack with 55.2% of the vote to Mack's 42.2%.

2018
Nelson ran for re-election in 2018. He ran unopposed in the Democratic Party primary, which took place on August 28, 2018. He faced incumbent Florida governor Rick Scott (a Republican) in the general election on November 6, 2018. The extremely tight race—with a margin of less than 0.25% separating Nelson and Scott—triggered a manual recount as mandated by state law. A recount showed that Scott had defeated Nelson by 10,033 votes.

A paper by scholars at the MIT Election Data and Science Lab concluded that the design of Broward County's 2018 general election ballots may have resulted in Nelson receiving 9,658 fewer votes than he otherwise would have received (which would have narrowed Scott's margin of victory but not changed the result of the election). The study found that many voters did not see the U.S. Senate race on the lower left side of the ballot and, as a result, did not cast votes in that race.

Committee assignments
In the 113th United States Congress, Nelson served on the following committees: In the 114th United States Congress, Nelson served on the following committees:
 * Committee on Armed Services
 * Subcommittee on Airland
 * Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
 * Subcommittee on Seapower
 * Committee on the Budget
 * Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
 * Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
 * Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
 * Subcommittee on Science and Space (Chairman)
 * Committee on Finance
 * Subcommittee on Health Care
 * Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
 * Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
 * Special Committee on Aging (Chairman)
 * Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
 * Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
 * Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security
 * Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
 * Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness
 * Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
 * Committee on Armed Services
 * Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Sea Power
 * Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
 * Committee on Finance
 * Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
 * Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
 * Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight
 * United States Senate Special Committee on Aging

Post-Senate activities
On May 28, 2019, Nelson was appointed to serve on NASA's advisory council. Nelson was a member-at-large of the council, which advises on all major program and policy issues before the agency. His appointment was praised by NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, who stated that "Nelson is a true champion for human spaceflight and will add tremendous value as we go to the Moon and on to Mars."

Nelson endorsed former vice president Joe Biden for President of the United States in 2020.

Nomination
On February 22, 2021, reports emerged that President Biden was considering nominating Nelson to be the NASA Administrator, then, on March 18, 2021, it was reported that Biden had selected Nelson for the position, with Biden officially announcing the decision the next day. Nelson's nomination received widespread support from members of Congress from both parties, including from Nelson's former opponent and successor in the senate Rick Scott, as well as the overall space industry. The United States Senate in unanimous consent voted to confirm Nelson to be NASA Administrator on April 29, 2021. Nelson was sworn in on May 3, 2021, by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Tenure
Biden chose former Space Shuttle commanders Pam Melroy and Bob Cabana to assist Nelson as deputy administrator and associate administrator, respectively. After his retirement in 2023, Cabana was succeeded by exploration head Jim Free.

Despite opposing them in the past, Nelson became a steadfast supporter of commercial fixed-price contracts and allowing aerospace companies to bid for contracts, saying, "with that competitive spirit, you get it done cheaper." He also affirmed his support for the Artemis Program, and through former Senate colleagues was able to get the entire requested Artemis funding for 2022, the first time that had happened.

As NASA administrator, Nelson has overseen the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Artemis I mission, and the DART asteroid impact, as well as significant progress towards future Artemis launches.

Political positions
Nelson was often considered to be a moderate Democrat. He has styled himself as a centrist during his various campaigns. During Nelson's 2018 re-election campaign, challenger Rick Scott characterized Nelson as a "socialist"; PolitiFact described the assertion as "pants-on-fire" false. According to ratings by the National Journal, Nelson was given a 2013 composite score of 21% conservative and 80% liberal. In 2011, he was given composite scores of 37% conservative and 64% liberal.

He has a lifetime conservative rating of nearly 30% from the American Conservative Union. Conversely, the Americans for Democratic Action gave Nelson a 90% liberal quotient for 2016. In the 115th Congress, Nelson was more conservative than 93% of other congressional Democrats. GovTrack, which analyzes a politician's record, places Nelson near the Senate's ideological center and GovTrack placed him among the most moderate Senators in 2017.

The only Florida Democrat in statewide office in 2017, he was described by Politico in March of that year as "a Senate indicator species...an institutional centrist." Politico wrote that the Democratic Party "is shifting left and so is he."

In July 2017, Nelson had a 53% approval rating and 25% disapproval rating, with 22% of survey respondents having no opinion on his job performance. FiveThirtyEight, which tracks congressional votes, shows that Nelson had voted with President Donald Trump's positions 42.5% of the time.

Economic issues
In 2005, Nelson was one of ten Democrats who voted in favor of the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on its 55–45 passage in the Senate.
 * Trade

On several occasions, Nelson has voted to reduce or eliminate the estate tax, notably in June 2006, when he was one of four Democrats voting for a failed (57–41) cloture motion on a bill to eliminate the tax.
 * Tax policy

Nelson voted against a Republican plan to extend the Bush tax cuts to all taxpayers. Instead, Nelson supported extending the tax cuts for those with incomes below $250,000. Nelson voted for the Buffett Rule in April 2012. Speaking of his support for the Buffett Rule, Nelson said he voted to raise the minimum tax rate on incomes over $1 million per year to 30% in order to reduce the budget deficit and to make the tax code more fair. Nelson said, "In short, tax fairness for deficit reduction just makes common sense."

Nelson voted in 2011 to end Bush-era tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 but voted for $143 billion in tax cuts, unemployment benefits, and other economic measures.

In 2013, Nelson advocated tax reform, which he defined as "getting rid of special interest tax breaks and corporate subsidies." Stating needed qualities of said reform, he listed "simplicity, fairness, and economic growth".

He and Susan Collins introduced legislation in 2015 that would "make it easier for smaller businesses to cut administrative costs by forming multiple-employer 401(k)-style plans."

Nelson voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, often referred to as economic stimulus, proposed by President Obama. In August 2011, Nelson voted for a bill to increase the debt ceiling by $400 billion. Nelson said that while the bill was not perfect, "this kind of gridlock doesn't do anything." Nelson voted against Paul Ryan's budget.
 * Government spending

In May 2013, Nelson asked the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to investigate why consumers who carried out a real-estate short sale were having their credit scores lowered to the same degree as those who went through foreclosure. Nelson suggested a penalty if the issue was not addressed within ninety days.
 * Consumer affairs

Nelson was frequently interested in product safety issues, and as such was frequently engaged in oversight and criticism of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. For example, he repeatedly opposed President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the commission.

Nelson voted in favor of the Biggert–Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which required the National Flood Insurance Program to raise insurance rates for some properties at high risk of flooding to better reflect true flood risk costs and keep the program solvent. In 2014, following an outcry by Florida property owners facing steep flood insurance-rate hikes, Nelson supported legislation that would provide retroactive refunds for taxpayers who had experienced large hikes in their flood-insurance rates due to the sale or purchase of a home. The proposal would also cap average annual premium increases at 15 to 18 percent and allow insurance-rates subsidies based on current flood maps.
 * Flood insurance

 * Earmarks

In 2010, PolitiFact found that Nelson had flip-flopped on the issue of earmarks, pushing for a moratorium on the practice after saying that "earmarks were an important part of creating jobs and growing Florida's economy."

Terrorism
In September 2014, Nelson said the U.S. should hit back at ISIS immediately because "the U.S. is the only one that can put together a coalition to stop this group that's intent on barbaric cruelty."

He supported the "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act." Introduced in 2013 and again in 2015, it would keep guns from people with suspected terrorist links.

Standing outside the Orlando Pulse nightclub immediately after the June 2016 massacre there, Nelson called Omar Mateen a "lone wolf," and when asked if it was an act of jihad he said he could not confirm that. Shortly afterwards, citing intelligence sources, Nelson said there was apparently "a link to Islamic radicalism," perhaps ISIS. Nelson later said on the Senate floor that "terrorists...want to divide people" but that Mateen had instead "brought people together. Following the massacre, Nelson and Barbara Mikulski supported an increase in FBI funding. A year after the Orlando massacre, Nelson attended a memorial at which he reiterated that it had "united Orlando and it united the country."

He supported the Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act of 2016.

In August 2017, the Miami Herald urged Nelson to back Lindsey Graham's Taylor Force Act, which would block U.S. subsidies to the Palestinian Authority, which gives monetary assistance to "Palestinian prisoners, former prisoners and families of 'martyrs.'" Nelson did vote for the bill, which passed overwhelmingly.

Health care
In March 2010, Nelson voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which passed and were signed into law by President Obama.

Nelson called in 2014 for the expansion of Medicaid.

In 2016, he called the House Zika bill "a disaster," complaining that it would take "$500 million in health care funding away from Puerto Rico" and limit access to "birth control services needed to help curb the spread of the virus and prevent terrible birth defects." In 2017 Nelson wrote a letter to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking them to prioritize Zika prevention.

In September 2017, Nelson and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Reinsurance Act of 2017, an effort "to stabilize the health insurance marketplace." It would provide $2.25 billion to "reduce risk for insurance companies by providing funds to insurers for high-risk enrollees" and "help keep premiums in check."

Immigration
In January 2017, Nelson wrote President Trump a letter protesting his immigration order. "Regardless of the constitutionality or legality of this Executive Order," he wrote, "I am deeply concerned that it may do more harm than good in our fight to keep America safe." U.S. success in the fight against terrorism, he argued, "depends on the cooperation and assistance of Muslims who reject radicalism and violence. Whether intended or not, this Executive Order risks alienating the very people we rely upon in the fight against terror."

Space exploration and NASA
In March 2010, Nelson complained that President Obama had made a mistake in canceling NASA's Constellation program. He argued against the $6-billion Commercial Crew Development proposed by the presidential administration and for a NASA-developed heavy-lift rocket built on Constellation's inheritance (which was later included in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act and became SLS). 11 years later, Charles Bolden (NASA administrator in 2010) commented that Nelson's skepticism was common in Congress at the time and refused to call him an opponent of commercial crew.

On July 7, 2011, it was reported that Nelson said Congress "starved" the space program of funding for several years, but suggested that the situation was turning around and called on the Obama administration to push for NASA funding. In September 2011 Nelson, together with Republican Kay Hutchison, led the push to continue the development of Constellation's Ares V SLV in the form of Space Launch System.

In 2016, Sen. Nelson brokered a bipartisan compromise on ending import of Russian RD-180 rocket engines.

In 2017 and 2018, Nelson sought to prevent Jim Bridenstine, President Trump's nominee to head NASA, from being confirmed in the Senate. Bridenstine had no formal qualifications in science or engineering, and denied the scientific consensus on climate change. Bridenstine was ultimately confirmed.

During his own confirmation hearing in 2021, Nelson reversed his earlier stances on the Commercial Crew Program and desirability of a NASA administrator without STEM education, and praised Bridenstine (the latter endorsed him earlier).

In June 2021, Nelson told CNN Business' Rachel Crane about the future of U.S.-Russian cooperation in the International Space Station (ISS): "For decades, upwards now of 45 plus years [we've cooperated with] Russians in space, and I want that cooperation to continue. Your politics can be hitting heads on Earth, while you are cooperating" in space.

LGBT rights
On December 18, 2010, Nelson voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which established a legal process for ending the policy that prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces.

On April 4, 2013, Nelson announced that he no longer opposed same-sex marriage. He wrote, "The civil rights and responsibilities for one must pertain to all. Thus, to discriminate against one class and not another is wrong for me. Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn't, and I won't."

Iraq War
Nelson voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 authorizing military action against Iraq.

Iran
In July 2017, Nelson voted in favor of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Iran together with Russia and North Korea.

Israel
In September 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Nelson signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Barack Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.

In March 2017, Nelson co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which permits U.S. states to enact laws that would require contractors to sign a pledge saying that they would not boycott any goods from Israel, or their contracts would be terminated

In December 2017, Nelson supported President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Venezuela
In April 2017, Nelson called for tougher economic sanctions against Venezuela, which he called an "economic basket case."

Cuba
He opposed a 2009 spending bill until his concerns about certain provisions in the bill related to Cuba were assuaged by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who assured him that those provisions "would not amount to a major reversal of the decades-old U.S. policy of isolating the communist-run island."

Syria visit
In 2006, Nelson met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus at the recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to try to improve US-Syria relations and help stabilize Iraq. He did this despite the United States Department of State and the White House saying they disapproved of the trip.

Russia
Following the destruction of Kosmos 1408 in an anti-satellite weapons test by Russia, Nelson stated that "With its long and storied history in human spaceflight, it is unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only the American and international partner astronauts on the ISS, but also their own cosmonauts", and the "actions are reckless and dangerous, threatening as well the Chinese space station".

Gun control
In 2012, the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) gave Nelson an "F" rating for his support of gun control. Nelson is an advocate for new gun control laws, including an assault weapons ban, a ban on magazines over ten rounds, and a proposal that would require individuals buying guns at gun shows to have background checks.

In response to the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Nelson expressed remorse that the Democrats' Feinstein Amendment, which would have banned the sale of guns to individuals on the terrorist watch list, and a Republican proposal to update background checks and to create an alert for law enforcement when an individual is placed on the terrorist watch list, had failed to pass the Senate. He stated "What am I going to tell the community of Orlando that is trying to come together in the healing? Sadly, what I am going to have to tell them is that the NRA won again." Both he and Marco Rubio supported the bills.

In October 2017, after the Las Vegas shooting, Nelson and Dianne Feinstein sponsored a bill to ban bump stocks for assault weapons. "I'm a hunter and have owned guns my whole life," he said. "But these automatic weapons are not for hunting, they are for killing."

Nelson spread misinformation via Twitter after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, falsely claiming that shooter Nikolas Cruz wore a gas mask and tossed smoke grenades as he shot people. After an April 2018 shooting in Liberty City, Nelson claimed that assault weapons had been used in the shooting, when in fact handguns were used.

Student loans
In July 2017, Nelson introduced legislation to cut interest rates on student loans to 4 percent.

Environment
Nelson and Mel Martinez co-sponsored a 2006 bill banning oil drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast. In 2017 he said he wanted the ban to continue to 2027, but that it was "vigorously opposed by the oil industry." Along with 16 Florida congress members from both parties, he urged the Trump administration to keep the eastern Gulf of Mexico off limits to oil and gas drilling. "Drilling in this area," they wrote, "threatens Florida's multibillion-dollar tourism-driven economy and is incompatible with the military training and weapons testing that occurs there."

In 2011, Nelson co-sponsored the RESTORE Act, which directed money from BP fines to states affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

On June 27, 2013, Nelson co-sponsored what became the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2014, which reauthorized and modified the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 and authorized the appropriation of $20.5 million annually through 2018 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to mitigate the harmful effects of algal blooms and hypoxia.

In 2015, after Gov. Rick Scott directed Florida officials to stop using the terms "climate change" and "global warming," Nelson introduced an amendment to prevent federal agencies from censoring official communications on climate change. It "fell to a point of order after a 51-49 vote, though Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Nelson in supporting the amendment."

Hurricanes
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Nelson and Marco Rubio agreed that Trump had taken too long to send the U.S. military to Puerto Rico to take part in relief efforts. "For one week we were slow at the switch," Nelson said in San Juan. "The most efficient organization in a time of disaster is an organization that is already capable of long supply lines in combat. And that's the U.S. military." After Hurricane Maria led many Puerto Ricans to flee to Florida, Nelson encouraged them to register to vote there.

Nelson was criticized for sending campaign fundraising emails in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Supreme Court
Nelson opposed and filibustered the nomination of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.

Security and surveillance
In 2007, Nelson was the only Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee to vote against an amendment to withhold funds for the use by the CIA of torture on terrorism suspects. His vote, combined with those of all Republican members of the committee, killed the measure.

In January 2018, Nelson voted to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the National Security Agency to extend a program of warrantless spying on internet and phone networks. In 2015, he had called for a permanent extension of the law.

The far side of the Moon
During a congressional hearing, when queried about China’s lunar ambitions targeting the moon’s far side, Bill Nelson mistakenly stated, "They are going to have a lander on the far side of the moon, which is the side that is always in dark.", despite the fact that the far side does experience sunlight. The incident fueled debate amid a burgeoning space race narrative, with China’s comprehensive lunar initiatives, including the Chang’e missions, and the Artemis program, both vying to send astronauts back to the moon.

Campaign donations from Saudi Arabia
Nelson received campaign contributions from Saudi Arabia's lobbyists. In June 2017, Nelson voted to support Trump's $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. In March 2018, Nelson voted against Bernie Sanders' and Chris Murphy's bill to end U.S. support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.

Russian hack claim
On August 7, 2018, Nelson claimed that Russian operatives had penetrated some of Florida's election systems ahead of the 2018 midterm elections; the claim was contentious during his 2018 re-election bid. He stated that more detailed information was classified. At the time, fact-checkers did not have evidence to backup Nelson's claims. However, later that August, "three people familiar with the intelligence" told NBC News "that there is a classified basis for Nelson's assertion", because "VR Systems had been penetrated in August 2016 by hackers working for" GRU.

A government official familiar with the intelligence told McClatchy that Russian hackers had penetrated some of Florida's county voting systems in 2016. DHS spokesperson Sarah Sendek said that the agency has "not seen any new compromises by Russian actors of election infrastructure." The Tampa Bay Times reported that Nelson had been told by leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee of a penetration of some of Florida's voter registration databases in 2016.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and FBI director Christopher Wray denied Nelson's claims in a letter to Florida election officials. Amid the criticism, Nelson defended his assertions about Russian penetration, saying he and fellow Florida Senator Marco Rubio had been instructed by Mark Warner and Richard Burr, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to warn the Florida secretary of state about Russian interference. Warner and Burr neither confirmed nor denied Nelson's claim that Florida's systems had been penetrated, while Rubio "has taken a line on the controversy similar to Burr and Warner's." The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a conservative watchdog group, filed an ethics complaint against Nelson, saying that he "discussed classified information or made it up."

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which concluded in April 2019, found that Russian intelligence officials "sent spearphishing emails to over 120 email accounts used by Florida county officials responsible for administering the 2016 U.S. election," and that "at least one Florida county" was successfully penetrated. In August 2018, federal authorities said they saw no signs of any "new or ongoing compromises" of state or local election systems. In May 2019, Governor Ron DeSantis said that voter databases in two counties had been successfully penetrated ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Personal life
In 1972, Nelson married Grace Cavert. The couple has two adult children: Charles William "Bill Jr." Nelson and Nan Ellen Nelson.

title: Bill Nelson


text:
User:Wendy Wendy

Welcome!
For more on moi, see Wendy Northcutt.

Greetings! I am an avid fan of the Wiki idea, and love how it's been implemented by the WikiPedia. I wish I were a more regular contributor to the information contained herein; alas, I have little time, and no clone (yet). Check out the Darwin Awards for my life's work.

I would love to stumble upon a programmer who can help me convert my Darwin Awards website to a Wiki. Is this you? I've read about DevolvePower, but I think MY Wiki needs to have impediments to random contribution, to account for * less traffic than Wikipedia (200,000 page hits/day) and * more juvenile stupid stuff -- when I've allowed unmoderated comments, they quickly become swamped with stooopid shit.

Wendy Wendy 07:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

title: User:Wendy Wendy


text:
Ben Nelson

Earl Benjamin Nelson (born May 17, 1941) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 37th governor of Nebraska from 1991 to 1999 and as a United States Senator from Nebraska from 2001 to 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party, and as of 2024, is the last Democrat to hold and/or win any statewide elected office in Nebraska.

Nelson was an insurance executive before he entered politics. His first run for office was in 1990, when he narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Governor Kay Orr. He was reelected by a landslide in 1994. He ran for an open U.S. Senate seat in 1996, losing in an upset to Republican Chuck Hagel. He was elected to Nebraska's other Senate seat in 2000, and reelected in 2006. He did not run for a third term in 2012, and was succeeded by Republican Deb Fischer.

Nelson was one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, frequently voting against his party.

Early life, education, and early career
Earl Benjamin Nelson was born on May 17, 1941, in McCook, in southwestern Nebraska. He is the only child of Birdella and Benjamin Earl Nelson. He is an Eagle Scout.

He earned a B.A. in 1963, an M.A. in 1965, and a J.D. in 1970—all from the University of Nebraska.

After graduating from law school, Nelson landed a job as assistant general counsel for Central National Insurance Group of Omaha. After several years in the business, in 1975 the governor appointed him state insurance director. After the administration changed, he returned to work for Central National Insurance as an executive vice president and eventually president.

Political career
Nelson became involved in state politics, joining the Democratic Party. In 1986, he served as state chairman of Democrat Helen Boosalis's gubernatorial campaign. She was mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska. Boosalis was defeated by state treasurer Republican Kay Orr, 53% to 47%.

Governor of Nebraska
Nelson first ran for electoral office in the 1990 Nebraska gubernatorial election, defeating first-term Republican incumbent Orr by 4,030 votes out of over 586,000 cast. He was reelected in 1994 with 74% of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a governor in half a century, despite the national Republican gains that year.

During his tenure, Nelson cut spending from the previous administration by 64%, when it was forecast to rise by 13%. He introduced legislation to cut crime through the Safe Streets Act and Juvenile Crime Bill, advocated for low-income families through the Kids Connection health care system, and enacted welfare reforms. He also cut taxes for over 400,000 middle-income families.

As governor, Nelson took some conservative stances on issues in right-leaning Nebraska. He pushed welfare reform before it was done at a national level and opposed President Bill Clinton's efforts on health care.

During the 1990 campaign, Nelson attacked Orr's support for a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump in the state. During his tenure, the Nebraska State Department of Environmental Quality denied the dump's application for an operating license, prompting a lawsuit that Nebraska settled for $145 million.

Nelson ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1996 when fellow Democrat Jim Exon retired. He was defeated by Republican businessman and Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel in an upset.

In 1998, Nelson was ineligible to run for reelection because of Nebraska's term-limits law. He was succeeded as governor by Mike Johanns, the Republican mayor of Lincoln. As of 2024, Nelson is the last Democrat to serve as governor of Nebraska.

2000 election
Nelson was nominated by the Democrats for the Senate in the 2000 election after his fellow Democrat, incumbent Bob Kerrey, announced his retirement. His opponent was Attorney General Don Stenberg. Nelson won the election with 51% of the vote after a campaign in which he spent 50% more ($1,004,985) than Stenberg. Despite initially pledging to work together, Nelson and now fellow U.S. Senator from Nebraska Hagel had a somewhat frosty relationship.

2006 election
Nelson was thought to be in danger of losing his seat in 2006, as it was thought his successor as governor, Mike Johanns, was almost certain to run against him; that speculation ended when Johanns was appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. With Johanns's move to Washington, few high-profile Republicans stepped up to run against Nelson, as the state party focused its attention on the governor's race. The Republican nomination was won by Pete Ricketts, a former TD Ameritrade executive.

In the general election, Nelson was endorsed by the National Rifle Association of America, Nebraska Right to Life (National Right to Life's state affiliate), Nebraskans United for Life, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, Nebraska Farmers Union PAC, National Farmers Union PAC, the Veterans of Foreign Wars PAC, the Business-Industry Political Action Committee, and the Omaha Police Union, all conservative-leaning groups.

Nelson defeated Ricketts 64%-36%, the biggest victory margin for a Democratic Senate candidate in Nebraska since Edward Zorinsky won 66% of the vote in 1982. In doing so, he received the votes of 42% of Republicans and 73% of Independents on top of 96% of those from his own party. He also won all but 13 counties in the western part of the state, a surprising feat in normally heavily Republican Nebraska.

Abortion
Nelson is anti-abortion. In the 2006 election, he was endorsed by Nebraska Right to Life and Nebraskans United for Life. He lost Nebraska Right to Life's support after voting for the Senate version of health-care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which did not contain the Stupak language.

Earmarks
In July 2007, Senator Tom Coburn criticized earmarks that Nelson had inserted into the 2007 defense spending bill, alleging that they would benefit Nelson's son Patrick's employer with millions in federal dollars, and that the situation violated terms of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which the Senate passed but had not yet been voted on in the House. Nelson's spokesperson said he did nothing wrong and was acting with "an abundance of caution" when he withdrew the amendment after the new Senate Ethics Rules were passed. Some government watchdogs, including Public Citizen, commented that the earmark probably didn't violate ethics rules. More than one publication questioned Coburn's motives, as his criticism did not include his own state delegation's earmark requests.

Health care and "Cornhusker Kickback"
In late 2009, the Senate's 40 Republicans unanimously opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Senate's version of health-care legislation. To end a Republican filibuster and pass the measure, the Democrats needed the votes of all 58 of their senators, plus those of two independents who caucused with their party. Nelson was the 60th and last senator to vote for cloture.

According to Nelson, he wanted to ensure that the final version of the law prohibited the use of public funds for abortions. His cloture vote came after the measure was amended to permit states to opt out of allowing insurance exchange plans to provide abortion coverage. People with plans that covered abortion costs would pay for that coverage separately from their payment for the rest of the plan. The bill also provided full and permanent federal reimbursement for the expenses Nebraska would incur in its mandated expansion of Medicaid eligibility, an amount the Congressional Budget Office estimated at $100 million.

The health-care measure was controversial, and Nelson's vote provoked a strong response. Opponents of the Medicaid reimbursement scheme derided it as the "Cornhusker Kickback". Among those denouncing the provision was Dave Heineman, Nebraska's Republican governor. To these criticisms, Nelson responded that he had been attempting to eliminate an unfunded federal mandate upon the states, and that the Nebraska item was a "placeholder", intended from the start to be replaced by a revision that would provide reimbursement for the increased Medicaid costs of every state.

Anti-abortion organizations also responded negatively to Nelson's vote. In April 2010, Nebraska Right to Life declared that it would never again endorse Nelson.

Nelson's popularity fell among Nebraskans in the wake of his cloture vote. According to Omaha.com, "Almost overnight, the controversial vote knocked [Nelson's] Nebraska voter approval rating from 78 percent, the highest in the Senate, to 42 percent, according to one poll, and prompted relentless criticism, with many observers saying his political career was over." A December 2009 Rasmussen poll indicated that in a hypothetical Nelson–Heineman race, the Republican would get 61% of the vote to Nelson's 30%. In the same poll, 64% of the Nebraska voters surveyed opposed the health-care bill.

With the victory of Republican Scott Brown in the special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority. Since Brown had declared himself opposed to the health-care measure, the party's leadership opted to enact the legislation through the budget reconciliation process. Nelson voted against the final version of the legislation, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. His support for the measure was no longer essential to its passage, since the reconciliation bill was not subject to filibuster and required only a simple majority.

The measure as ultimately passed eliminated the special Medicaid reimbursement for Nebraska, as Nelson had requested in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about a month after his crucial cloture vote. Nelson said his opposition to the final measure arose from newly added provisions related to student loans that would adversely affect Nebraska-based student-lending firm Nelnet. Despite voting against it, he subsequently defended the law, saying, "I am willing to fight to improve it, but not to repeal it."

Iraq
On March 15, 2007, Nelson was one of two Democratic senators to vote against invoking cloture on a resolution aimed at withdrawing most American combat troops from Iraq in 2008. The vote, requiring 60 votes to pass, was 50 to 48 against.

As a result of traveling to Iraq four times, the last in September 2007, Nelson took the position that a transition of the mission in Iraq was necessary, as opposed to full withdrawal of troops. The Jones Commission supported his view on September 6, 2007, when General James L. Jones presented a report to Congress claiming that "The circumstances of the moment may continue to present the opportunity for considering a shift in the disposition and employment of our forces... such a strategy would include placing increasing responsibilities for the internal security of the nation on the ISF, especially in urban areas. Coalition forces could be re-tasked to better ensure the territorial defense of the state by increasingly concentrating on the eastern and western borders and the active defense of the critical infrastructures essential to Iraq." The premise that stability in Iraq would only be achieved through political reconciliation acted on through legislation, a view long held by Nelson, was also recommended by Jones, reporting, "The future of Iraq… hinges on the ability of the Iraqi people and the government to begin the process of achieving national reconciliation and to ending sectarian violence."

In the spring of 2007, Senators Nelson, Susan Collins of Maine, and John Warner of Virginia authored a list of measures, or "benchmarks", that were included in the Iraq Supplemental bill. These benchmarks allowed for progress to be measured in certain areas such as recognition of minority groups, strengthening of internal security forces, and equal distribution of oil revenue. President George W. Bush and General David Petraeus were required to report on the advancement of these "benchmarks".

Nelson and Collins also introduced legislation on July 11, 2007, that would transition U.S. troops out of Baghdad. The legislation called for turning over internal security efforts to Iraqi forces after which the U.S. military would secure the borders, protect the infrastructure, and continue to search for al-Qaeda forces.

Judicial appointments
Nelson was the lead Democratic senator among the "Gang of 14," a bloc of 14 senators who, on May 23, 2005, forged a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the gang's agreement, Democrats would retain the power to filibuster one of Bush's judicial nominees only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and the three most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Nelson was the only Democrat to vote to confirm Brown; he was later the first Democratic senator to support Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States. Nelson also voted twice, with three other Democrats, to end Senate debate over Bush's United Nations Ambassador nominee John Bolton.

In an op-ed column, Nelson wrote: "The president's nominees, especially to the Supreme Court, deserve an up-or-down vote, even if the nominee isn't popular with the special-interest groups in Washington."

In 2010, when Barack Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, Nelson was the only Democrat to vote against her confirmation, saying "I have heard concerns from Nebraskans regarding Ms. Kagan, and her lack of a judicial record makes it difficult for me to discount the concerns raised by Nebraskans, or to reach a level of comfort that these concerns are unfounded. Therefore, I will not vote to confirm Ms. Kagan's nomination"

Same-sex marriage
In 1996, Nelson proposed and supported legislation to prevent Nebraska from recognizing same-sex marriages formed in other states. This was his response to a court case in Hawaii that Nelson feared would legalize gay marriage.

Nelson supported Initiative 416, an amendment to the Nebraska constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage and domestic partnership.

Taxes
Nelson was one of five Democratic senators to vote for the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. The measure called for $1.35 trillion in tax cuts over 11 years and nearly $2 trillion in spending for the next fiscal year. The spending was close to that proposed by Bush; the tax cuts were slightly less than the $1.6 trillion Bush sought. Nelson also voted for passage of the 2003 tax cut which accelerated many of the provisions in the 2001 tax cut in addition to benefits for small businesses.

In October 2009, Americans for Tax Reform stated that Nelson was the only Democratic senator who had signed its Taxpayer Protection Pledge, and launched an advocacy campaign to urge him to oppose the health care reform proposals in Congress, which, they asserted, contained "billions of dollars in income tax hikes."

In July 2012, Nelson, with 18 other senators, cosponsored a bill that would allow states to collect sales taxes on interstate sales, including catalogue and Internet sales. The bill (Marketplace Fairness Act, S.1832) would require any seller who sold a product or service to a consumer from another state to calculate, collect and pay to that other state the sales tax based on that state's tax rates. Proponents argued that the measure would redress an unfair economic advantage enjoyed by online sellers over local businesses arising from the fact that the former were often not required to collect sales taxes from their customers. Opponents maintained that it would be unfair to require interstate merchants to collect sales taxes in jurisdictions where they had no physical presence, and thus derived no benefit from the taxes; and that the variety and complexity of state and local sales taxes would place a burden on merchants required to keep track of them in order to collect the taxes.

Other votes
Nelson's votes in the Senate often placed him at odds with the leadership of his party. A National Journal congressional vote rating from 2006 placed him to the right of five Senate Republicans (Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, and Lincoln Chafee). Mary Landrieu was the only other Democrat to the right of any Republicans (she placed to the right of Chafee). A similar 2007 National Journal rating went even further, placing Nelson to the right of eight Senate Republicans (the above five as well as Richard Lugar, Norm Coleman, and Mike DeWine), with Landrieu once again to Chafee's right and the only other Democrat to the right of any Republicans. For 2012, the American Conservative Union rated his overall performance at 48 percent, the highest of any Democratic senator.

Nelson was one of only two Democratic senators to vote against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. He voted with Republicans on bankruptcy reform, environmental protection, class action lawsuits, and trade. In 2004 he was one of only three Democratic senators to vote to invoke cloture on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment; in 2006 he was one of only two Democratic senators to vote that way. He was the only Democratic senator to vote against a 2006 bill that would have extended federal funding for stem cell research. But he consistently voted against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also opposed Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Early in Bush's first term he voted with the majority of his party against scrapping President Bill Clinton's expansive new rules on ergonomics regulation for workers; many of his fellow conservative Democrats like John Breaux, Max Baucus, Blanche Lincoln, and Zell Miller voted with Republicans on the issue. On April 26, 2010, Nelson was one of two Democratic senators in attendance to vote against the motion to move a financial regulations bill forward, siding with Senate Republicans. The other was Harry Reid, who voted against his own proposed bill for procedural reasons.

On December 18, 2010, Nelson voted with Democrats for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.

Post-Senate career
In January 2013, Nelson was named chief executive officer of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, an organization of state insurance regulatory agencies for the United States and several of its territories. The body establishes standards and coordinates regulatory oversight for the state agencies. He left the association and returned to his private law practice in January 2016.

title: Ben Nelson