Cleo's Mom

Wrong again. These groups put pressure on the companies, like they did with the Joe the Camel, not wanting it used because it appealed to young people. And they are trying to put pressure on McDonald's not to use the clown to appeal to kids because the food is high in fat, salt and sugar. Find me the federal law that says McDonald's can't use the clown. Or shut up about it.

You talk about modesty? What a hypocrite. This coming from the person who claims/brags to have the one and only correct interpretation of the bible while the pope's is wrong! You could use a major dose of modesty youself. You know glass houses and stones and all that. And Krauthammer is just another Obama hating neocon. His opinions are irrelevant.

All this is because for 30 years, starting with saint ronnie, the biggest heist in history has been going on right under our noses; and unprecedented transfer of wealth from the American middle class into the pockets of the super wealthy. In Eisenhower's day the super rich paid 90% of income in taxes (THIS WAS WHEN IT ONLY TOOK ONE MIDDLE CLASS PAYCHECK TO LIVE ON). Under saint ronnie he lowered the top tax rate from 70% to 28%. WOW!!! In 1976 the top 1% of Americans earned 8.9% of the income, by 2005 they earned 21.5%. From 1979 to 2005, incomes for the top 5% increased 81% while the incomes for the bottom 20%, the american workers, declined 1%. So, you see pattygreen, the reason for all this is the republican agenda of the rich getting richer and the middle class getting screwed. It has nothing to do with federal employees or their salaries or the taxes businesses pay, blah, blah, blah, it's because america's wealth is going to line the pockets of the rich. But hey, greed is good is the wall street motto and those who support it.

Here's a better story. Once upon a time there was a president, bush, and he inherits a surplus in the federal budget. He is warned that Bin Laden is going to attack inside the united states but he is busy clearing brush in crawford county, texas pretending to be a cowboy. At this point the unemployment rate is 4%. :grouphug: When bin laden does attack and kills 3000 people, this president is reading a my pet goat to school children. He doesn't react until the second tower is hit. Using the horror of this episode to get the country to support him and through fear, he convinces everyone that the patriotic thing to do is do a pre-emptive strike on Iraq to search for phantom WMD's. He borrows the money from China to do this. Call it his war credit card. But he does not ask the american people to sacrifice for this unnecessary war. Instead, while still borrowing from China on his credit card, he gives not one, but two tax cuts to the rich (and a few crumbs to the middle class). This is unheard of in any time of war. During times of war, taxes have been raised to pay for it. But bush, the president, continues to borrow from China for the war but now there is even less money coming in due to the tax cuts. So guess what happens? Why, the deficit goes up. Who knew??? Now, nearly a trillion dollars later and no WMD's and 4000 soldiers dead, well Iraq can be seen as the wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Just plain wrong. Then this president bush makes a deal with big pharma and allows them to develop a medicare drug program that isn't paid for. But that's okay. Just more spending and debt. Cheney said deficits don't matter. He said saint ronnie proved that. Katrina came through and once again bush was away - literally eating cake with mccain while people were dying. Oh, well, just more collateral damage. So, now the surplus is a deficit. But we're not done. Due to the cozy relationship with wall street and the de-regulations, wall street, under bush, is playing russian roulette with our money. It causes near economic collapse so he decides to bail out the banks in a move termed TARP. mccain is tripping over himself to get back to DC to help the banks. The unemployment reaches 8.1%. Guess those two tax cuts didn't create any jobs. By January 2009 when Obama takes office over 8 million jobs have been lost. Obama turns the economy around and we go from losing 700,000 jobs a month to 6 months of positive job growth. He passed health care, financial reform is on the horizon and clean energy and immigration will be addressed (bush just kicked these problems down the road). But guess what? There are people who live in the state of selective amnesia. This is a state where people selectively forget who caused the mess and who's cleaning it up. It is caused by drinking too much of the kool aid. And it also causes them to think that electing more of the people who got us in the mess is the solution. Isn't that hilarious?? This time under bush is known as the lost decade. Our homes lost value, our paychecks lost value, our retirement savings lost value. Well, I wish I could say they all lived happily ever after but the tea partiers would call that some socialist plot.

BP Republicans - take a look at who/what they are and then ask yourself why anyone would want more of these people elected: bp Republicans | BP Republicans

Why are these threads posting the wrong people when you hit quote? We had this problem before. I don't know how it was corrected but the LAST thing I want is for any quote by pattygreen to be credited to me. Like in post #91 above. That red quote is not by me, it is by pattygreen.

All who die are left in a sleep state until the resurrection day when Jesus returns to this earth at the end of the age. And where does soul sleep appear in the bible?

You are not an expert. Actually, I am. I have studied the bible almost my whole life. I have gone to bible college and earned my degree in bible. You're the expert and the pope's wrong? Far more people believe him than you. Just because you studied something doesn't mean your interpretation is the correct one. There are those who believe what you believe and they also believe Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs. That doesn't make them right. The bible is open to interpretations and that is why there are so many religious denominations. I know you don't believe in organized religions but your bible studies were just that. Organized brainwashing that it was the one and only interpretation. It is not nor will it ever be. I will interpret the bible my way. Not your way or anyone else's way.

Typical conservative, right wing answer - blame the government and still not answer my question about what higher taxes are you paying since Obama took office to pay for all these government jobs you claim have been added. I assume you paid direct taxes to the government under bush, too. Did he add any jobs. Let me think for a millisecond. Yes, the largest expanse of the federal government took place under him with the Dept of Homeland Security.

Obama Taxes, Debt, and Stimulus Worked, Trumping GOP Blather By John Aloysius Farrell By John A. Farrell, Thomas Jefferson Street blog I suppose it is a mark of Democratic ineptness or complacency that, a year after Congress passed one of the biggest tax cuts in U.S. history, President Audacity still found the need to inform us of this fact in his State of the Union address. Republican partisans may have preferred an across-the-board tax cut, or a gift to corporations, or the Paris Hilton Honorary Tax Repeal Bill, rather than targeted tax cuts for working families. But there is no denying the fact: The Democratic stimulus bill gave middle-class families a huge tax break. And there is more--much morerelief to come. It's getting lost in the cacophony again, but Obama's proposed budget has $2.7 trillion in tax cuts for middle-class families, working folks caring for children or elderly parents, college students, small businesses and investors, research and development--even cellphone users--over the next 10 years. Another fact: That much-maligned stimulus bill, along with the hated bank bailout loans, also did what economists (including those who were advising the Bush administration, which initiated the stimulus process and the bailout loans months before Obama took office) said they would. They stabilized an economy in free fall. The banks have even begun to pay us back. And yet another fact: This smart bit of pump-priming was no radical, loony, Democratic idea. With the exception of some Western European countries like Germany, where the social welfare system is already a perpetual stimulus machine, our international competitors (i.e., China) opted for a Keynesian fix to the worldwide depression as well. It has been a standard economic prescription for a century. The great fourth quarter report that the U.S. economy got last week may not immediately translate into job growth or higher family incomes, which are always lagging indicators that a recession is over. But it was good news nevertheless. Remember where we were in the fourth quarter of 2008? We might actually have some money to buy those iPads when they're available this spring. But, OK, the Obama tax cuts and stimulus package did exacerbate the debt problem that he inherited from the Tom DeLay generation of Republicans--which dropped the pay-as-you-go policies of the Clinton-Gingrich years to two wars and the biggest expansion of Medicare since LBJ with the government credit card. But of course their spending didn't and doesn't matter. They caused the debt and Obama gets blamed. And, due to the failure of the Democratic message machine (from smugness, or maybe just exhaustion), the need for the new red ink that the Bush-Obama rescue packages added to the national debt was poorly explained, went undefended, and became an invitation for Republican demagoguery. But it is not that the GOP has offered any better ideas. As I take it, from the Republican rhetoric of the last year, the party's proposed cure for the accumulating debt is to chop taxes for the rich, preserve wasteful Medicare spending, show up at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies for local pork projects, and increase the Pentagon budget--somehow, magically, without adding to the deficit. And now, as my colleague Peter Roff warns, the Democrats have a not-so-secret plan to raise taxes! Well, in this case, we can't fault the Democrats for hiding their light under a bushel. There is nothing remotely secret about what Democrats campaigning in 2004, 2006, and 2008 proposed to do with the expiring Bush tax cuts. You would have to have been traveling on the Starship Enterprise, visiting distant galaxies for the last eight years, to find it surprising that Obama wants to extend only those tax cuts that benefit families earning under $250,000 a year. It's been Democratic Party policy for all that time, shouted from the rooftops, written into party platforms, loudly advocated at debates. The Democrats have been upfront, loud, and honest about their plan to close the gap between what the government takes in and what it spends: Tax the rich. IT'S ABOUT TIME.You may be rich, and not like it. You may have ideological problems with any form of taxation. You may just not like Barack Obama. But the choice has been clear, and in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the voters overwhelmingly endorsed the Democratic approach. Final Fact: The federal debt that's been accumulated by the two parties is so stunningly huge that tax increases are inevitable. If you don't believe this, get Scotty to beam you up, and move to another planet. It is pick-your-poison time. The Democrats, for all their political ineptness, deserve a little credit for 1) recognizing this, 2) leveling with us, 3) aiming the first round of tax hikes at those who have most benefited from the accumulated debt, and 4) having the guts to actually do something, as opposed to just saying "No." By levying higher taxes on the wealthy, and at banks, and multinational corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas, Obama would raise $1.5 trillion in new revenue in his budget to close the deficits over the next decade--even after cutting middle-class taxes and taxes on small businesses by $2.7 trillion. Level with yourself. Are you really worried about the national debt? Then put your money on the table: Call your Democratic senator or representative and ask them to reduce the size of your expected tax cut, and use the money to close the deficit instead. Yeah, like any of those hypocrites would really do that.

I don't give a rat's ass what Europe is doing. The right certainly has historically rejected those European countries policies toward universal healthcare, which the people like. Our economy has rebounded from the greatest economic disaster since the great depression. Job losses have turned into job gains. The GDP is up. Job growth is slow but at least it's positive. The only thing that will slow the economic recovery is if less spending is done to stimulate growth. AND THAT IS WHAT THE REPUBLICANS WANT. THEY WOULD RATHER THIS COUNTRY CRASH AND BURN AND TAKE EVERY CITIZEN WITH IT THAN SUPPORT ONE THING OF THE PRESIDENT WHO HAS DONE THE BEST HE CAN TO CLEAN UP BUSH'S MESSES AND TURN THIS ECONOMY AROUND.

What tax increases have you paid to pay for any government jobs under Obama? And the only jobs that count are not private sector jobs. We pay for all those in the defense industry, all those farm subsidies, all those government energy contracts, etc.. So, no not all private jobs are free from our tax dollars paying for them.

Why do Catholics Pray to Mary Introduction I have an Evangelical friend who said "When I go to a doctor I don't want to talk to his mother." That is an interesting analogy. However, this Evangelical talks regularly with his pastor and asks the pastor to pray for him. The pastor doesn't turn him away by saying, "Don't talk to me! Don't ask me to pray for you! Go straight to Jesus!" The pastor has compassion and "intercedes" (stands in the gap) for him. He prays for the congregation and for individuals. He has compassion and wants to assist people in their relationship with Christ. This in no way diminishes Jesus' role as the Lord and Saviour. Catholics ask Mary to pray to Jesus for us. She is interceding, kind of in the way a pastor might pray for you or me. In the Rosary we ask Mary to "Pray for us sinners." And we think she s quite good at that. Mary is a "born again" Christian who received the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost and spoke in tongues 2000 years before Pentecostals got the gift.(Acts 1:14, 2:3) She knows how to pray - yes even in tongues! In the movie "The Passion of the Christ," I was floored when I saw Mary at the foot of the Cross. I would like to have that woman pray for me. I ask her to do just that, pray for me. I also ask her to pray for you. I feel her prayers and I thank her for spending so much time praying for our world. Does hanging out with Mary defocus us from Jesus? I got an email that said: Why then would we want to take the focus off of Jesus and pray through Mary, or any one else for that matter? I also see a lot of the issues surrounding Mary as distractions. I appreciate concern that attention paid to Mary defocuses from Jesus. It is an interesting choice of words because Mary said the opposite about herself. In the Bible, Mary clearly spells out her role in eternity: My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. (Lk 1:46-49) The Bible says Jesus is magnified by Mary's soul. A soul is not limited by life on earth. Mary reinforces her eternal ministry by saying "all generations will call me blessed." If the Bible intended Mary's ministry to end with the birth of Jesus, or at Jesus' death, or even at Mary's death, I don't think it would use that language. A magnifying glass increases the object it is focused on, so being in relation to Mary's eternal soul does not draw focus away from Jesus, it does the opposite. It magnifies him. This is the Bible's word to the people of God. I've heard Evangelical Pastors do sermons on just about every passage of Scripture except this one. I invite you to try to remember a sermon on Luke 1:46-55. The movie "The Nativity" removed words from the Bible that referred to Mary when they flashed the passage on the screen during the final scene. I think it's crazy to remove words about Mary from the Bible to make some Christians feel more comfortable. Catholics believe Mary's soul still "magnifies the Lord" for Christians of our generation who choose to relate to her. Currently, Catholics are pretty well the only ones upholding the biblical prophesy to call her blessed, which was intended for all generations, and for all Christians. Except for pattygreen's interpretation of the bible. The pick and choose version. Let's leave the part about Mary being called blessed out or if not, we can interpret it differently and then tell people OUR interpretation is the correct one.

Wow! Talk about arrogant. The pope is wrong and you are correct. Someone call the presses. There is earthly death and there is eternal life. Those are two different things. Eternal life is not just spiritual life, it is life in heaven reunited with God and our loved ones. And God would never have allowed his son to be in the womb of a sinner. Mary was conceived without sin as she was prepared to be the bearer of Jesus. Maybe Mary wasn't mentioned more in the bible because the scared, MALE disciples ran off when Jesus was condemned and crucified, except for John, who helped Mary take the body down. Who do you think prepared the body in the tomb? Have you not seen the pieta? Religious paintings and sculpture reflect the bible. Why would anyone want to talk to a dead person? Because once they die and go to heaven they are no longer dead. They live eternal life. The word life is used. Not eternal spiritual life. Eternal life. Get off your spiritual high horse. You are not an expert. Your interpretation of the bible is just that - yours. Others can interpret for themselves, just as you have been brainwashed to think. Someone told you how to interpret the bible and you believed them.

Under the bush administration unemployment went from 4% to 8.1% due to his failed economic policies. Under the bush administration, wall street de-regulation and their reckless, greedy and arrogant regard for our money led to the near collapse of our economy. Under the bush administration, termed the "lost decade" because we lost 8 million jobs, the value of our home, retirement and purchasing power (paychecks) declined and were lost. Under the bush regime, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. ALL OF THIS IS A RESULT OF THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA. WE KNOW HOW THIS STORY TURNS OUT - SO WHY WOULD ANY THINKING, INTELLIGENT PERSON WANT TO GO BACK TO THIS? Now, under the Obama administration we have had 6 months of positive job growth. A job, is a job, is a job. Those that have one pay taxes and buy things and stimulate the economy. Under the Obama administration we now have long overdue health insurance regulations and 32 million uninsured will now be covered. Lives will be saved. Under the Obama administration, we are going to have financial reform, something else that is long overdue. AND WHAT IS IT THAT THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TO OFFER? HERE IT IS:___________________________________.

MsMackieLee: Here's something for your class to ponder. God put us here on earth. He set things in motion for humans to evolve. He sent his son to give us some words to live by. Other than that he is not involved in our lives one way or another. Things that happen are the result of random happenings or accidents of nature. If you believe that God interferes with every aspects of our lives and that everything that happens is because God made it happen then you have to believe that he allows a two year old to die from brain cancer. You have to believe that he caused the tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people. You have to believe that he allows some miners in a collapse to be rescued while others die. You have to believe that he allowed Hitler to gain power and kill 10 million people. And the way you believe all this is to say: We are not to question God's plan. Well, that isn't an answer, that is a cop-out. If you want to make sense of this life, you have to believe that things, both good and bad, just happen. There is a randomness to life that we can't control. God looks down with joy and sadness at the choices we make, but he doesn't make them for us. He also allows nature to take its course, and it does. And God looks down tosee how we're doing, but doesn't interfere. His "interference" was in sending his son. But that's over and he looks at how we have handled his message. And as humans we are to make the best of life, be the best person we can be and to not be self-centered but to be compassionate about the suffering of others and we are told to love God and our neighbors and to forgive our enemies. Jesus's message was one of love, peace and forgiveness. Now God watches how things evolve here on earth, but doesn't interfere.

The Tea Party: A phony grassroots movement headed for political oblivion? By DOUG THOMPSON The week’s primaries were supposed to be a celebration for the so-called Tea Party, a phony grassroots movement that is really a front for the extreme right-wing. Instead, several of the party’s annointed candidates lost to establishment opponents and some who won — like fringe candidate Sharron Angle in the Nevada GOP Senate primary — highlight the con job the Tea Party is trying to pull on American voters. Notes The Washington Post: The national “tea party” movement’s recent winning streak broke with Tuesday’s primary results, providing fresh evidence of the decentralized conservative network’s struggle to convert activist anger and energy into electoral results. That struggle is likely to continue as Republicans head into general elections without knowing whether conservative activists will throw their support behind more moderate GOP nominees. Even the tea party favorites who prevailed on Tuesday face the new challenge of fighting perceptions of extremism among moderate and independent voters. From California to Virginia (with some notable exceptions), establishment-favored candidates won Tuesday in Republican primary battles for governor, House and Senate. In California, candidates who claimed the conservative mantle were outgunned by well-known and well-funded opponents. And in two congressional races in Virginia, where the tea party movement is popular and abundant, activists were unable to coalesce around a single candidate — illustrating the organizational challenges facing the movement’s grass roots. A new Washington Post-ABC News polls show half of the American electorate now disapprove of the Tea Party and think of it as too extreme — an 11 point jump in the group’s negative rating. Angle’s win in Nevada may well be the beginning of the end of the Tea Party. (People are starting to wake up and see them for what they are - phonies). Writes Brent Budowsky in The Hill: Will voters favor a candidate who supports saunas and massages for criminals, opposes Social Security and Medicare for seniors and fights against jobless benefits and jobs programs for workers? Don’t bet on it, in Nevada or any other state. Mark the Nevada Senate campaign as leaning blue. The fad of the polyester populists of the right, who will vote like bank lobbyists in Congress, will soon come to an end. The great Nevada campaign will prove the point I have been making all year. The Tea Party movement may control the Republican Party at the cost of losing many general elections. It is the oldest and truest timeless rule of politics. Voters oppose the status quo, but oppose extremism even more. David Corn, writing for Politics Daily, says the more people find out about the Tea Party and the fringe candidates it backs the more the party loses support. Says Corn: At first, the TP movement could be seen as a patriotic uprising with a time-tested and honorable moniker. And its original target was President Obama’s health care overhaul — a controversial move that many voters, independents especially, were wary of. But in recent weeks, the — shall we say — excesses of the Tea Party have been on display. When Rand Paul won Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary, he proudly declared, “I have a message from the Tea Party: we’ve come to take our government back.” Paul, now the closest thing to a national spokesman for Tea Partyism, in the next few days proceeded to round out the usual Tea Party message by noting he did not support all of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and by saying that he believed Obama’s pressure on BP, the despoiler of the Gulf of Mexico, was “un-American.” Paul was simply sharing his true desire for small-government. But his remarks revealed the not-so-pretty libertarian underbelly of the leave-us-alone Tea Party movement and exposed its fundamental bias against using government to combat such wrongs as corporate pollution or racism. He looked like a John Bircher of the 1950s — yet he was reflecting the current sentiments of his people. The backlash is inevitable. The Tea Party is not — and never has been — the “grassroots” movement that is claims. It was born out of a sham grassroots organization created in the office of a Republican consultant for a millionaire GOP client and then nurtured into existance by former Republican Congressman Dick Armey of Texas. It’s a phony organization, espousing fake idealism, playing on the gullibility of those who flock to so-called “populist movements.” It will make a lot of noise but — in the end — will accomplish nothing. AMEN!!!

Here's one elected republican who seems to get it. Unfortunately not too many like him around: From republican (and conservative) Bob Inglis (SC): *"Too many Republican leaders are acquiescing to a poisonous 'demagoguery' that threatens the party's long-term credibility." *"[T]ea party favorites such as former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and right-wing talk show hosts like Glenn Beck are the culprits." *Talking about crazy stuff like mythical "death panels" is "the lowest form of political leadership." *The current Republican "leadership" is not leading, but is "following those (television and talk radio) personalities." *And finally, check this out: Inglis said he was too far away during the jeering incident to hear whether the protesters shouted racial epithets, as Lewis and other black lawmakers have claimed. But Inglis said the behavior was threatening and abusive. "I caught him at the door and said, 'John, I guess you've been here before,'" Inglis said. Inglis, 50, who calls himself a Jack Kemp disciple because he has emphasized outreach to minorities as the late Republican congressman did, thinks racism is a part of the vitriol directed at President Barack Obama. "I love the South. I'm a Southerner. But I can feel it," he said. By the way, for anyone who would question Bob Inglis' conservative credentials, you might first want to peruse Project Vote Smart, where you'll see his 0 rating from NARAL, his NRA "A" rating, his 100% Family Research Council score, and his lifetime 93% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union. Inglis also has voted 93.7% of the time with his Republican colleagues during the current Congress. So yeah, he's a Republican. An honest one. What a concept! dailykos

I'm not in favor of people coming here illegally. I think the employers should be heavily fined for hiring undocumented workers. If they were then they would hire all those American workers who claim to want these jobs. That being said. If a pregnant woman is in this country illegally and goes to the hospital for pregnancy care, what would be your solution? Have hospital workers be the ones to investigate the legal status? If yes, then what should they do if the woman cannot provide legal status documentation? Should the hospital turn her away? What if she went to the hospital for an emergency? Should they turn her away? I am just asking because you can't present problems without offering solutions. These are complex problems. Just bashing those who abuse the system is not the answer. Have you been to the ER? Do they ask you for your legal citizen status? I have been there and they haven't. They ask for insurance, but not legal status. Should that be their job? If not, then whose job should it be. I am just throwing these questions out there because the solutions and answers aren't simple. Thank you for your input.

You need to provide more facts to back up your accusations: 1) Do all pregnant women get free everything? Or is it income dependent? 2) If all pregnant women get free everything then I would think the Oregan population would go through the roof. 3) I suspect it's income dependent. Therefore, don't white pregnant women who meet the income requirements get free everything? Because if they don't then it would violate the civil rights act and probably a good many other federal laws, too. 4) Those who ascribe to your way of thinking usually consider themselves pro-life (I prefer anti-abortion). So, if pregnancy is the starting point for all these free goodies do you then want to deny prenatal care for the unborn and jeopardize it's life - or isn't the fetal life important if its mother is an undocumented worker? 5) Would you also then deny a place for this baby to live and food for it to eat - again, because it's mother was an illegal? 6) If pregnancy is the starting point, does Oregan hand out all these free goodies to able bodied people without pregnancies or children?

When you refer to the government crossing the line, you are referring to government regulations on private corporations, which I support. Private businesses have shown that they cannot and will not self-regulate. We are currently living with the disasterous de-regulation of Wall Street and how those lack of regulations led to an almost complete collapse of our economy. Thankfully, Obama's economic plan has helped turn that around. We see how the lack of regulations has affected the lives killed in Massey Mines and with the BP oil spill. We need more, not fewer, regulations. Regulate, baby, regulate. I want my workplace, car, drinking water, food and air safe. And if it takes more government regulation, then so be it. It is you who wants to infringe on our freedom to marry who we want or control our bodies. You want the government dictating that and infringing on those freedoms. Most of the people in this country were dependent on the government long before Obama became president. It only became an issue when he did, however, again reflecting on the never ending hypocrisy. Dependent with social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment, public schools, public roads, clean air, water and safe foods, workers comp., police, fire, etc.. Pres. Obama has not made us more dependent. The only reason for increases in government aid is the rise in unemployment which doubled under bush from 4% to 8.1%. More people are hurting and in need of aid. So, when you speak of the increased dependency, what are you referring to? And when you speak of freedoms being taken away, what are you referring to? Because I haven't had one freedom taken away since Obama was elected. As a matter of fact, the gun-huggers can now run around with their guns strapped on thanks to the right-wing, activist supreme court.

You do need a slight unfill. Call your doctor and arrange for one. You need to be able to eat and drink with the band. But I am equally concerned with your doctor not being "big on letting you know" how many cc's are in the fill or how many you have total. You ABSOLUTELY have the right to know this and I would be suspicious of the secrecy. If you want to know and your doctor won't tell you, then you need to question your doctor or maybe find a new one.