Renewal of the Patriot Act

It will be fascinating to see whether or not the new democratic congress votes to renew them.

Let the rhetoric wars begin...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-patriot-act23-2009sep23,0,6070872.story

Points:
1) Obama has gone back on his campaign promise to get rid of the patriot act. He is calling for an extension of the law but with modifications.
2) Democrats call it a "refreshing break" from the Bush era. I see no difference.
3) There are three primary points of the law that are up for expiration on Dec 31. Most notably is the law that "allows the FBI, with a judge's approval, to obtain an order to get business records, financial data, computer information or even library records that are believed to be relevant to a terrorism investigation. These searches are done in secret and the banks, for example, are not to notify the customer."