What?!! WikiLeaks' Julian Assange a politician? According to a poll conducted by Australia's Labor party, if he ran for office in his native country, Assange might actually get some votes.

Speaking of leaks…

Holy Moly! The Vatican is none too happy with a new book chocked-full of leaked documents about the sacred institution. Don't worry, guys. As Neal Cassady said, "grace beats karma," right?

Keep them out! Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, says no to Africa's tired, poor, and huddled masses entering his country looking for work and refuge. You know the schtick: meddling-outsider ethnic group threatens to destroy the very "social fabric" and "national identity" of the good citizens of blah blah blah.

Pakistan blocks Twitter. After users posted pictures depicting the prophet Muhammad, the Pakistan government blocked Twitter in the country. Really? Why not just see who is posting what and arrest them later? Come on. Think outside the totalitarian box a little.

Debate at the G 8. At Camp David, President Obama urged German chancellor Angela Merkel to go easy with her austerity plans for Greece. She wasn't having it.

Relationship Status: Married. That's right, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now married.

In other tech news…

The CEOs of Apple and Samsung will enter mediation tomorrow. This will be the second quiet chat Apple has had recently.

Farming with lasers? Yup. Step aside glyphosate, Farmer Brown's got something better for them damn weeds!

In case you missed it….

The blind Chinese dissident, Chen Guangcheng, landed in the US last night. But don't worry, I'm sure this won't anger our number one trading partner too much. And no doubt there will be plenty of other human rights violations we can overlook in the future.

Solar Eclipse! The US western states and parts of Asia will experience a partial solar eclipse later today. For Portland the eclipse starts at 5:04 pm with the sun mostly eclipsed by 6:21 pm.

Assuming these fucking clouds go away, there might even be something to look at—just not directly, retinal burn and all that. But just in case our view is obstructed, here’s a video of what it might look like, (and a lot of people wearing weird sunglasses).

Terrorism charges—the future of protest policing—have been filed against three NATO demonstrators arrested (and previously targeted) in Chicago. Cops say they found bomb-making materials and that the men they arrested were planning to hurl Molotov cocktails at Obama's campaign HQ and other fine places. But lawyers say all the cops found was a bunch of homebrew equipment and argue the search warrant that allowed the arrests wasn't legit.

Confusing charts, so many of them, make the case that Facebook's IPO went even more poorly than we think it actually did.

Maybe we won't have to go to war with Iran over its nuclear program. At least until after the November presidential election.

So many Portlanders gathered yesterday to remember and mourn for Kathryn Rickson, the cyclist who was killed at SW 3rd and Madison after a large truck, making a right turn, struck her.

A Republican congressman's donors made out like bandits after their patron steered an earmark—amounting to millions in government overspending on Army airplane parts—their way.

The premiere launch of a privately owned cargo rocket destined to dock with the International Space Station was delayed for several days because SkyNet computers detected a problem and also because Zefram Cochrane isn't real and, as such, couldn't fix it.

The senior party leaders atop China's Politburo rail against elitist American values have no qualms about sending their kids and grandkids to study at elitist American universities.

Sewing your 14-year-old's son's ass shut—because his ailing bowels gave him a fistula—is a criminal offense, but maybe not so criminal that you'll get sent to jail for it.

AND NEVER FORGET (KIND OF LIKE SEPTEMBER 11 AND THE ALAMO)! PARENTS WHO USE DRUGS HAVE KIDS YOU USE DRUGS. ANY QUESTIONS?

Guess what? President Barack Obama really was born in Kenya! Never mind his birth certificate clearly listing his birth in Hawaii—the president's own literary agency told the real truth in a 1991 pamphlet obtained by that one dead conservative provocateur.

Facebook! Money! They let the awkward man in the hoodie ring the Nasdaq bell—and then his company's stock price opened at $42, adding to its record IPO haul.

Willard Romney's new ad promises what Day 1 in his White House would look like: Handsomeness, and a bulldozer ready to bury spats-wearing plutocrats in millions of dollars in government cash.

But poor Willard. People maybe kind of like him? But every time he tries to keep the focus on how much money he'll give to other rich people, some rabid partisan or another keeps reminding us all how much more his party cares about racism and xenophobia.

An august psychiatrist who pushed a study defending a "cure" for queerness now says he's sorry. "I owe the gay community an apology," he says.

The man who shot Trayvon Martin probably fired his gun while it was pressed against Martin's chest, according to new evidence released by a special prosecutor.

Rumors abound that Europe is plotting to kick Greece out of its special economic club.

Can you record police officers? The feds, in a letter to Baltimore cops, say you can and that any cop who tries to stop you or arrest you is afoul of the YOO ESS CON-STEE-TOO-SHUN.

NATO protests in Chicago, now that they have begun, will put this to the test.

Sorry, kid. Blackface is never okay, even if you're earnest and trying your best to ace a school presentation on Martin Luther King Jr.

DON'T WORRY, THOUGH. SPOCKFACE IS ALWAYS OKAY.

So what in-the-hell does this all this mean? Who knows. What we can probably say with some certainty is that while other drugs experience their ups and downs, pot has stayed consistency popular. And in 2011, it was more popular then ever.

For those who are curious about drug use among the arrested in Multnomah County, here's a cheat sheet (PDF) taken from the ADAM II reports from 2007-2011.