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I've always scoffed at people, usually bloviating Hollywood types, who pop up every four years during an election season to proclaim, " if (insert candidate name here) wins this election, I'm moving to another country!" Generally my feeling has been, "well don't let the door hit you on the way out," but I gotta admit, right now, today, in this very moment, New Zealand or Australia seems rather appealing.Why the change of heart? Complete and utter lack of confidence in the American "mainstream" media, that's why. Let's review what has transpired of late that has me feeling this way. And just for the sake of remaining "above the fray," let's even go so far as to keep fake babies out of it. I'm so angry right now that I don't think I'm capable of putting together a cohesive thought, so I'm just going to rant a bit here, in a sort of stream of consciousness manner. My apologies in advance. Here we go...Let's start with the fact that just about every major media outlet right now is propagating the McCain spin that Barack Obama is a sexist for allegedly calling Sarah Palin a "pig." Here's what Obama actually said in full context...John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics. That’s just calling the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.Of course, what the Rovian geniuses running the McCain campaign have done is narrowed this down to the pig soundbite and gone crying to the media. And the media, ball-less fucks that they are presently, are spinning the story for them virtually unchecked. It's the lead story everywhere that Obama called Palin a pig when he clearly did not. Never mind the fact that John McCain himself used that same analogy when describing Hillary's health plan. They're just letting him get away with it!Then of course there's the disgusting "Barack Obama wants to teach your five year-olds about blowjobs" ad that they unveiled yesterday. A total fabrication. In civilian life it's the stuff that libel suits are made of. Again, barely a whimper out of the media. Even worse, they go on to report it without challenging it, acting almost as if it's fact.So to recap so far...the McCain campaign is telling repeated blatant, horrendously shameful lies about their opponent, and the big media, the supposed watchdogs, the keepers of this country's gate of liberty, are for the most part either sitting on their hands or reporting it unchallenged, thereby giving it all a whiff of legitimacy.If lying to America's face about their opponent isn't enough, then day after day after day they trot forward with the claims that they've made in their ads and in their stump speeches, which are also complete lies. All of the railing that they do against lobbyists, against earmarks, against the "bridge to nowhere," against out of control government spending, against raising taxes, claiming to have sold a jet on Ebay...EVERYTHING they say is a fucking lie. It's absolutely mindboggling. These people have no conscience whatsoever, and the spineless hacks in the media don't challenge them on it any of it. Which again, gives legitimacy to the lies that they tell.This is what you do when you have nothing to offer...you play on people's fears and create diversionary tactics to throw people off the scent, the scent of rotting stench because your record is abysmal and you're completely devoid of original thinking. And sadly, it's working. Actually, it's working masterfully, because of the simple fact that they have willing accomplices with the American press. The Republican party has de-balled them to the point where they are terrified to raise even the slightest criticism against them, lest they be labeled "liberal" or "sexist." And by the way, the Washington Post has still yet to correct the fact that they badly misquoted a FUCKING FIVE MONTH OLD BABY in a story on Palin the other day!Now, let's talk about Sarah Palin for a minute, shall we? Leaving all of the fake baby shit aside...why isn't this woman's extensive list of misdeeds not listed on the front page of every American newspaper today? I mean, I don't even know where to begin! She's got a trail of bodies in her wake that is longer than that of the Clintons in their heyday, yet very little is being asked. Fuck, she's not even answering questions about herself, save for an upcoming interview with Charlie Gibson. Where is the media outrage about that? This is a woman vying to be the number two to an old man with a history of cancer, yet she's getting a fucking pass? Jesus Christ we're at war on multiple fronts, out economy is crumbling at it's core, we have an energy crisis unlike any we've ever faced, shit man, this country is in trouble, this house of cards could all come tumbling down very soon, and they're just going to give a pass to this woman?!?!Let's review the things they need to be beating down her door over...-Troopergate...more details on this emerge daily. Today it was revealed by Newsweek that in 2005 an Alaskan judge reprimanded Palin for stalking and smearing her brother in law. The judge threatened to reverse a custody decision if she and other members of the Palin family didn't leave the man alone to get on with his life. He labeled what they were doing as "child abuse." Obviously, she didn't listen, because today she finds herself under investigation for trying to use her position as governor to have him fired. Emails that she sent pleading her case have also emerged. I've read everything and have followed it closely and, I'm sorry, but this woman is emerging more and more each day as a complete fucking psycho.-Her family...Look, we've all got family issues. Lord knows I have mine. But we're not trying to become vice-president of the United States by using our skills as a mother as a qualification for the job. Frankly, her family is a fucking train wreck. The report in today's National Enquirer, and I'm very inclined to believe all of it, confirms some of the things that Alaskans have been emailing me in recent days, namely that Track Palin is a horrible drug addict and a bit of a thug who was basically forced to join the Army because he's a fuckup. It was that or go to jail. And now the campaign is using him as a prop, having him enlist on 9/11 and then arranging for him to be deployed on that day of this year as well for maximum political "narrative" advantage, which makes these fucks even sicker than they already are. And poor Bristol seems to despise her mother, so much so that she was kicked out of the house to live with an aunt. It doesn't appear she's been in school for over a year. I've heard that both her and Track are high school drop outs, a fact that is appearing to look more and more true. Oh, but these are conservative family values, the same values that they want to legislate upon everyone else because, you know, they're better than you. The same values she wants to use to get herself elected. Never mind that they're outdated and horribly, horribly misguided. God has sent them here to spread his word. They are his divine instruments. But don't you dare ask her one question about how fucked up her family is because they're off limits. They remind me so much of the uber-religious families I knew back home...fighting desperately to maintain a facade of perfectness while the reality was that everything was completely fucked up on the inside. So I dare to ask...How can this woman manage the world's most important job when she can't seem to manage her own household? -Sarah Palin, woman, pseudo-feminist, made rape victims in her town pay for their own forensic exams when she was mayor of Wasilla, which is situated in a state that has the highest per capita rates of rape and incest in the country. Think about that for a moment. Imagine that someone in your family was murdered and then you received a bill for the cost of the investigation weeks after their death. That's essentially what Sarah Palin did. Her's was the only town in Alaska to do so. Why? Because she said they couldn't afford it.-Palin's record as mayor of Wasilla on the whole is utterly terrible. I mean, it's SO bad. She went in to office with a surplus and left them with a shitload of debt and pending litigation, largely over some silly sports complex she wanted to build. No money for rape investigations, but plenty of money to build a Goddamn hockey rink. If that doesn't symbolize everything wrong with America right now, if that doesn't symbolize why Sarah Palin is so wrong for America right now, nothing else does.-Palin billed residents of her own state thousands of dollars in travel expenses when she was actually at home with her family. HELLO?!?! Don't people go to jail for such things? Again, where is the media to ask the hard questions on all of this? Why aren't they demanding that she address these things? Why do they continue to trumpet the McCain campaign spin along the way while ignoring these very legitimate concerns? I feel as though my brain is about to explode. This is too fucking important people!One last thing...and I can't believe that I'm about to say this because there was a time in my life where I adored this guy, I supported him with everything I had and would have walked over a bed of hot coals to help him get elected in 2000, but John McCain, this John McCain that we're now seeing, the John McCain that over the last ten days or so has turned a blind eye to "changing the tone in Washington" and all of the other bullshit that he has spouted for years, leads me to say this... John McCain is a fucking scumbag!

is the author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, published in January 2008 by The Penguin Press. His previous books include The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post; The Botany of Desire; Second Nature; and A Place of My Own, pictured here. Pollan is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and is a Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley.

Yesterday, Senator Obama’s traveling staff and press corps took a ride on the recently refurbished and repainted campaign plane. This vessel has been home to the many of us who travel full time with the Senator and we welcomed it back with open arms. The plane’s first voyage was a particularly auspicious one. We flew to Jordan to meet up with Barack Obama, who is stopping in Amman following a fact-finding tour of Afghanistan and Iraq. He…

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I’m going to take a brief break from your food phobias today to tell you about my newest one. It lives in the freezer. It controls my mind, and at times, my spoon. And at the rate we’re going, it will be the very end of me. Or my waistline. Or my husband, as he leaves me for the Paris-dweller who envisioned this masterpiece.