This post is more for my notes so I remember it, but once again Ben Nadel's blog saved the day.
My problem was similar, but I was getting "Data Truncated for Column" errors using MYSQL import. To stop this error, basically just let mysql truncate teh fields without throwing the error. Follow Ben's instructions for whichever version of the driver you are using. Except you want to add jdbcCompliantTruncation=false to the driver. If you have multiple parameters then you separate them with an &.