Jackson Jambalaya

The Republican also need to remember that the reason the Democrats failed in the 60's is that they were at the mercy of the extreme elements in their party .
In their zeal to prove their positions were correct, they overlooked consequences and destroyed the good along with the bad. They never bothered to have more than a simplistic understanding of the issues they embraced.
The Republicans are doing the same thing with the budget...never understanding zero base budgeting or tax reform or line item veto as the best ways to get budget control so that lowering taxes becomes easy. Instead, they are going to increase unemployment, further weaken the infrastructure and government's ability to respond to disasters. They are cutting underfunded, essential programs along with overfunded fat programs. And, health care reform is a necessary part of budget reduction as health care costs are out of control.But, neither party has the guts to take on the insurance industry whose control has dropped us below number 1 in the world in EVERY category. Look at the stats...that our infant mortality rate is a disgrace. But, we believe hype and don't look at FACTS.

^^ Gibberish. ^^ Go get Ladd to respond eyerah. that our infant mortality rate is a disgrace

David Hampton, a decent guy despite being a Democrat, lamented his party's decline in an op-ed a couple weeks ago. He and other Southern Democrats are fond of saying that the South switched to the GOP because of race.

It's convenient, and it's a straw man.

You can track the decline of the Democrat Party in the South to 1968, when the hippie war protesters took over. The national leadership of the party has since been dominated by freaks and weirdos. They're pro-abortion. They want gun ownership curtailed if not abolished. They embrace deviant homosexuality as mainstream. They blame America first and take sides with our adversaries. They call for higher and higher taxes on those who achieve and create jobs. They're socialists.

White Democrats in Mississippi were just too stupid to figure it out.

Or, if you wanted to be historically accurate, you could track the "Democrat" Party's decline in the South to the 1940s...when qualms about the national party's embrace of civil rights culminated in Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat campaign.

If you've really never heard of that milestone in Southern political history, I hear Trent Lott is willing to talk about it.

There is widespread misunderstanding about how our infant mortality rate compares to other countries. In other countries a 1000 gram (less than half a pound) newborn is pretty much left to die; here we spend a million or more (literally, and no exagerration) to try to save him/her. A baby who dies within hours of birth in some countries is counted as a stillbirth, not in the infant mortality stats. We do have a tremendous problem within our country with racial disparities in premature births and infant mortality; if you just look at the white stats from Mississippi they compare favorably with the other 49states.

I was referring to the US infant mortality rate compared to other nations...a statistic figured the same way for quite a long time. We once had the lowest infant mortality rate in the world. Now, there are 40 countries ahead of us.

JKev, we agree that the Democratic " base" changed during the 60's and you are right, it wasn't just about race. The Democrats lost the " middle" because the demands of the most vocal and strident in the party took a " our way or the highway" position. The party gave a platform to people who lacked , to put it kindly, " gravitas". They " threw out the baby with the bathwater" at every turn.

I'm suggesting there's a lesson in that for both parties that never seems to get learned in the headiness of victories and when the mentality is us/them rather than remembering we are all Americans and you have to persuade the congregation and not just the choir.

I'll try again, and I'll type SLOWLY since we have some comprehension-impaired amongst us.

Infant mortality rates are NOT calculated the same in different countries. I gave you two specific examples as to how they are calculated differently in the US vs other countries, and the US comes off looking worse because, IMHO (as well as every neonatologist I know) we are more honest. Other countries call infant deaths on Day of Life #1stillbirths that we classify as infant deaths, and of course our stats look worse as a result of these differences in how various terms are defined.

There was an interesting story a few months back about a Canadian woman with a complicated prenatal diagnosis that had to deliver in the US because there wasn't a single Canadian hospital that was willing to try to deliver her fetus alive (Google it yourself - I'm on vacation).

I'll type slowly as well.
The stats, though having some inconsistencies in how they are generated between countries, have been generated the same for quite some time . You ignore that our rates have been falling by OUR own calculations.
Your rationalization is not a statistical explanation for the decline either. Such a decline is not explained by minor variables in calculation nor does that explanation apply for all those reporting . Shall we look at all the categories of decline as well and pile up the excuses to ignore that by our own internal figures we are not improving?

11:12 By the way, anecdotal stories are not persuasive to scientists and statisticians. But, if you are arguing that Quixotic efforts to save infants with a small chance of survival affect our stats, I'll agree. But , then we have to look at the percentage of live births that fall into that category. I don't believe you'll be able to use that category to explain the decline and move us up significantly. Would you care to explanation why we've declined by our own reporting techniques?

What geographical area in Mississippi is in the "Foothills of the Appalachian Mountains"?

That actually was the question on my mind about 11:12. I guess they teach in the " foothills" that the NIH and WHO are conspiratorial and don't teach that touching news stories about one person aren't scientific evidence of how a health system is functioning.

This Hooks guy is just a paid community organizer...and a dweeb on top of that. MS has been trending GOP for years and will continue in that direction!