Democracy -> Oligarchy -> Autocracy

Note today, it was the end of America.
We as a people have been failed, and we will be in a continuous slide for the coming future. I can only hope that we can make it through the next 6 months without some sort of catastrophic event that will enable our current oligarchy to convert our government into an autocracy. Of course, I am referencing the vote that happened today, which approved changes to FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was written in 1978 to limit the executive branch's power to spy on Americans.

The bill that passed today amended that bill, and removed the majority of the limits placed on the executive branch by allowing more time to get orders, and removing congressional oversight of the intelligence gathering programs. The part of the bill that got coverage, the retroactive immunity to the telecom companies is all a giant smokescreen setup to hide the true atrocity of the bill. Yes, the telecom companies broke the law, and, yes, I agree that for our own good, its is necessary that a blanket immunity be placed on the telecom companies as an industry. If they were allowed to be sued for damages, it would do no good other than to rob our left pocket to put money in our right pocket as consumers. Any damages they incur would be passed back to the consumers, so as I see it immunity is necessary lest our cell bills and internet connection bills go up. Now, I don't think that the heads of those companies should be personally immune for the decisions that they made, but I don't think class-action style lawsuits will benefit anyone. In context, I think that the individuals who were involved should be made to pay the consequences of their decisions, and I think that goes all the way to the top with George W. Bush. And that is another matter, with this immunity, he is no longer responsible for committing the felonies against the people of the United States. Not only that, but his power in this matter is greatly expanded because the limitation is now that the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence only have to say that they "reasonably" tried to exclude Americans. The huge error in this is that both of those positions are presidential appointments. With the continued erosion of oversight and limitations of the power of the executive branch of our government we have slid into an Oligarchy which still continues to hide behind the idea of being a democracy by holding public elections. Those elections mean nothing though, because the votes of the individuals do not directly count for anything. It is a giant smoke and mirrors event designed to help keep the people in control where they are, while preventing the revolt of the subjects.

An interesting look at the political landscape and our impending future, barring any cataclysmic events enabling our acting government to declare themselves unable to hand over power "for national security reasons", is to look at how the major presidential candidates voted for the bill. Barack Obama voted for it, while John McCain abstained from voting, and Hilary Clinton voted against it.