diff -u FeedsSimplePieParser.inc.old FeedsSimplePieParser.inc
--- FeedsSimplePieParser.inc.old        2009-10-31 12:35:44.000000000 -0400
+++ FeedsSimplePieParser.inc    2009-11-01 18:48:39.000000000 -0500
@@ -45,7 +45,13 @@
       $item['description'] = $simplepie_item->get_content();
       $item['url'] = html_entity_decode($simplepie_item->get_link());
       // U = std. unix timestamp
-      $item['timestamp'] = $simplepie_item->get_date("U");
+      $item['timestamp'] = $simplepie_item->get_date("U");  
+      // If timestamp is empty, NULL, 0, '0', or "0", set to current time.
+      // Do this via the FEEDS_REQUEST_TIME constant, 
+      // which was set to the current Unix time in the Feeds.module.   
+      if (empty($item['timestamp'])) {
+        $item['timestamp'] = FEEDS_REQUEST_TIME;   
+      }
       $item['guid'] = $simplepie_item->get_id();
       // Use URL as GUID if there is no GUID.
       if (empty($item['guid'])) {