Last Call For Largeness

Yay America! We're no longer the fattest developed nation on Earth!

According to a new report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, the United States is no longer the world's fattest developed nation―Mexico is.

Nearly a third of Mexican adults (32.8 percent) are considered obese—people aged 20 and older whose body mass index (BMI) is 30 and above. That edges out the United States, where 31.8 percent of American adults are considered obese.

Syria at 31.6 percent, is the third fattest among developed countries, while Venezuela and Libya are tied for fourth at 30.8 percent.

Mexico's urban lifestyle and rising income levels coupled with malnourishment among the country's poor have helped it claim this unhealthy title.

“The same people who are malnourished are the ones who are becoming obese,” Abelardo Avila, a physician with Mexico's National Nutrition Institute, told the Global Post. “In the poor classes we have obese parents and malnourished children. The worst thing is the children are becoming programmed for obesity. It's a very serious epidemic.”

Diabetes kills an estimated 70,000 people a year in Mexico—"or roughly equal to the deaths authorities say are caused by more than six years of the country's gangland wars," the Post noted.

Woohoo!  'MURICA.

The Sunset Of Ultrasound Bob, Part 2

Things are starting to crash hard for Virginia GOP Gov. Bob "Forced Ultrasound For All The Vaginas" McDonnell.  Apparently he has a little problem accepting gifts from wealthy donors that he keeps forgetting to tell people about, and what makes it worse is now we see those gifts caused a direct conflict of interest, with his wife and sister making tens of thousands from donors and McDonnell pushing it under the rug.

A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan, according to people with knowledge of the payments.

The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor’s wife, Maureen, in 2011, the people said.

The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 — funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations.

Williams, the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific Inc., also provided a $10,000 check in December as a present to McDonnell’s eldest daughter, Jeanine, intended to help defray costs at her May 2013 wedding, the people said.

Virginia’s first family already is under intense scrutiny for accepting $15,000 from the same chief executive to pay for the catering at the June 2011 wedding of Cailin McDonnell at the Executive Mansion.

All the payments came as McDonnell and his wife took steps to promote the donor’s company and its products.

The payments to the corporation, confirmed by people familiar with the transactions, offer the first public example of money provided by Williams that would directly benefit the governor and not just his family.

McDonnell is in serious trouble here, if only because if there's one thing politicians will cut your throat over it's messing up their legal kickback gravy train by doing it illegally and threatening all the gifts they're getting too.

I don't see how McDonnell survives this, frankly.  Not that it'll matter much with less than six months left in his term, but I'm pretty sure at this point both parties want him out of the way.

We'll see what happens.  I got 60/40 he goes.

The Long, Dark, Tea Party Time Of The GOP Soul

Wow, it's like I've been saying for months now that House Republicans were going to kill immigration reform, and suddenly WIN THE MORNING figures it out.  Genius.

In private conversations, top Republicans on Capitol Hill now predict comprehensive immigration reform will die a slow, months-long death in the House. Like with background checks for gun buyers, the conventional wisdom that the party would never kill immigration reform, and risk further alienating Hispanic voters, was always wrong — and ignored the reality that most House Republicans are white conservatives representing mostly white districts.

Gosh guys, you mean the party of the Last Gasp of Demographic Privilege is betting everything on white men and saying to hell with everyone else?  HOOCOODANODE.

These members, and the vast majority of their voters, couldn’t care less whether Marco Rubio, Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove say this is smart politics and policy.

Republican leaders will huddle with their members Wednesday afternoon to plot their public strategy. But after holding countless listening sessions, it is clear to these leaders that getting even smaller, popular pieces of reform will be a tough sell. The House plans a piecemeal approach: a border-security bill this month, maybe one or two items a month in the fall.

And their approach is "our way or the country burns."  Tens of millions of scared jackasses who never imagined a black President in their lifetimes now want to "take their country back" and by God they will trample on the rights of everyone else to remain on top.

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) held a town meeting last week where 25 of the 100 people spoke out on immigration — and every single one of them argued for staying clear of anything remotely resembling the Senate-passed bill.

“Our constituents don’t trust our government,” Cotton said. And he is reluctant to pass even pieces of immigration reform that he thinks are needed — like a better tracking system for people in the country on visas — because he is concerned they could become “a Trojan horse in a conference committee for a package that puts legalization first and enforcement later.”

It's all fun and games until one of them dates your daughter, moves in next door, or gets re-elected.  Now it's time for Second Amendment remedies against those who you disagree with, right guys?

Keep walking down that road to political oblivion.  It will catch up to you guys eventually, but not before another generation of massive damage to everyone else.  They'd rather reign over the ashes of America than share it with anyone darker than Snooki.

StupidiNews!

• Texas Dem State Sen. Wendy Davis admits that Texas Republicans will almost certainly pass new anti-choice laws today in Austin, and that Dems won't be able to stop the bill.
• Wal-Mart says it will immediately scrap three planned stores in Washington DC if the city passes a living wage law requiring large employers to pay employees $12.50 an hour.
• A car bomb in in Hezbollah-controlled Beirut that wounded 50 may be in retaliation for the group backing the Asaad regime in Syria.
• Egypt has named former Mubarak-era Finance Minister Hazem El-Beblawi as the country's new Prime Minister after the rejection of Mohamed ElBaradei for the post.
• Last week's failure and crash of a Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a satellite payload may have resulted from sensors installed upside down.