Most important news story of the week (ending February 13, 2009)

[ColbertWatcher]

Most important news story of the week ending February 13, 2009

A: arrests are made in Australian bushfires

B: people are still without power in the U.S.

C: House and Senate reach an agreement with the JOBS BILL

D: owner and president of Peanut Corporation of America, Stewart Parnell, pleads the fifth when testifying before Congress

E: Morgan Tsvangirai is sworn in as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in a power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe

F: Russian and American satellites collide in orbit

G: no clear winner in Israel's election; coalition government must be formed

H: the alleged link between autism and vaccines revealed as a hoax

I: One of the last-minute "incidents" that are a part of the Friday document dump (please see which in my reply)

J: Other (please see my pick for most important new story in reply)

[screembloodymurder]

1. Satellites don't collide by acccident.

There's much more to this story.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. And they can't blame Canada geese. n/t

[TahitiNut]

3. I'd like to see an analysis of power-outage recovery -- privatized vs. municipally owned

I have this nagging perception that privatized electrical utilities are FAR less reliable and take longer to recover from outages.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. That's a good question.

Now I want to know too!

[Fireweed247]

4. As everyone argues over the stimulus bill, no one cares that the pentagon lost 3 trillion

and Obama just appointed the guy responsible to deputy defense secretary?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5046331

In fiscal year 1999, the Department of Defense reported that it was missing $2.3 Trillion. In fiscal year 2000 the Department reported a missing $1.1 Trillion. Total: $3.4 Trillion "missing" taxpayer money. This happened under the watchful eye of the same William Lynn that now passes through the revolving door between the Department of Defense and the Defense industry.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. I'm glad you posted this. Thank you.

I originally started doing this when I noticed people posting crap like the Michael Phelps and Octomom. Looks like the only thing that's changed is which trivial story we will allow to distract us.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Saturday kick. n/t