In America's deep south, everything is deep fried. To fight a major obesity epidemic, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has ordered a state wide crash diet. At the Arkansas state fair, the gastronomic delights on offer leave most healthy thinking people with stomach ache. "You know, we are famous in the South for frying everything. We fry our grandmothers!" reports one stall holder, brandishing a corn covered, oil soaked, deep fried sausage. But Governor Mike Huckabee wants to trim the fat. "I was digging my grave with a knife and fork," he states, showing off his new physique, itself recently trimmed by over 50 kilos. Now he has become the first politician in the west to enforce annual weigh-ins for every one of Arkansas 400,000 children. He has also imposed controls on school dinners and compulsory physical education.