Really Hating iTunes 7

So I decide I want to clean out my podcasts from my hard disk and resubscribe. I remove all my subscriptions, then see that iTunes still keeps a bunch of podcast mp3’s in its podcast directory. So I delete them. Now I think all is good, and I can continue. But then I notice my smart playlist, Japanese Pod 101. I open it and see that it still is full. I click on one, and the exclamation point comes up, meaning it cannot find the file. I guess iTunes is looking in its database and there is no way for it to “smartly” refresh. WTF?!?! I gotta go into the XML file and remove all 298 items by hand? I HATE ITUNES!!!! what a piece of shit.