Most of those prevention efforts, Alexander said, came from the NSA's monitoring of foreigners' internet communications under a program known as Prism. He added that they were "limited, focused and subject to rigorous oversight."

His comments came a day after President Obama gave he gave his most forceful defense of the NSA's surveillance activities to PBS's Charlie Rose,

As to where the American public stands on the issue, well that seems to vary depending on which pollster you trust most.

But there are definitely elements on both the political right and left who are angry about the revelations.
This Friday afternoon a rally in Tampa has been called to protest the snooping, though the groups sponsoring this event all are to left on the political spectrum.

The survey out Tuesday shows the Lens — on the ballot Aug. 27 — losing 63-28 percent, with 10 percent undecided.

The poll also shows that Bill Foster may be in a major fight to survive the Aug. 27 primary, where he'll be on the ballot with Kathleen Ford and Rick Kriseman.

When asked how's he doing in the survey, St. Pete voters responded by a 56-43 percent margin that they don't think the mayor is doing a good job.

However the headlines this morning aren't that Scott continues to trail a man who hasn't even declared his candidacy yet, but about how Scott's approval and personal ratings are the highest in his tenure in office.

Scott's job approval rankings are almost split straight up, with a 43-44 rating, his highest approval rating since he was elected and up 7 points from when the question was last asked three months ago.

And Scott gets a divided 40 - 42 percent favorability rating, but that also is up from a negative 33 - 46 percent favorability rating March 20, and his best score so far.

However, voters still say 50 - 35 percent that Scott does not deserve to be reelected.

And think about this: Scott is working damn hard to get re-elected, while Charlie Crist, Alex Sink and Bill Nelson - all rumored to be potential Democratic candidates - haven't done a thing in terms of challenging Scott, since they're not declared candidates. And Crist and Nelson still lead Scott (the poll did not include Alex Sink).

President Obama is really in a pickle in many respects to his presidency. He went on Charlie Rose last night to defend the surveillance tactics that Edward Snowden has revealed to the world. While the country appears to be split on whether they think it's okay, some of his previous supporters are disturbed by the rhetoric he displayed on the subject in 2007, and what he's saying now.

And what to make of the announcement late last week that the U.S., after two years of bloodshed, will begin arming Syrian rebels opposing Bashar al-Assad? Well, the public needs a lot more selling, because 70 percent oppose doing it according to a new Pew Poll.

The poll shows that Americans believe the moral thing to do is stop authoritarian regimes, but they are almost evenly divided on whether we should do anything for the Syrian people.

Moving on, the GOP-led House of Representatives plan on voting for two measures this week, one being the Farm Bill, which will substantially reduce the number of people who receive food stamps.

They'll also be voting on an abortion bill as early as today that would make it illegal to have an abortion after 20 weeks. That bill, of course, is going nowhere, as the U.S. Senate will never pass it. Sort of like a lot of bills in Congress, sadly.

New Yorker journalist George Packer is getting rave reviews for his look at America through a collection of individual portraits in his new book, The Great Unwinding. There's certainly a lot of interest in the book here in the Tampa Bay area, as the region is one of the main characters in story of America over the past three decades, and much of it ain't pretty. Our conversation can be read here.

• Congresswoman Kathy Castor, Tampa Bay Elementary principal Glenda Rodriguez, Hillsborough School chief MaryEllen Elia

Because members of low-income working families with children who benefit from school lunch and breakfast programs would be affected by those cuts, Tampa-area Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor was joined by Hillsborough County School District head MaryEllen Elia at Tampa Bay Elementary in West Tampa to decry the House proposal.

"Food stamps were very important during the economic recession because people lost their jobs and the last thing you want is for a child to go hungry, show up to school with having breakfast and lunch, so SNAP provided that safety net for children all across this community," Castor said Monday morning as kindergarten students entered into the cafeteria behind her for their lunch period.

• Bill sponsor Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said last week that" The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low."

Scheduled for a vote in the House later this week is a proposal that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. It's sponsored by Arizona Republican Trent Franks, who last week provoked outrage when he argued against an amendment would have exempted victims of rape or incest from the bill’s strict limits.

“Before, when my friends on the left side of the aisle here tried to make rape and incest the subject — because, you know, the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low, but when you make that exception, there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours. And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the purpose for such an amendment,” Franks said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing (on Friday the GOP amended it to include an exception for rape and incest).

Tampa-area Democrat Kathy Castor says she strongly opposes the bill.

"This is another example of the extreme position that Congressional Republicans are taking. We thought the war on women is over, but apparently not," Castor told CL Monday morning after she wrapped a press conference regarding the Farm Bill at a West Tampa elementary school.

He certainly aroused attention in the Tampa Bay area after the New York Times' Dwight Garner wrote in a glowing review that Packer made Tampa, who Garner described as one of the five main characters of the book, "seem like hell on earth now."

"I was interested in Tampa as an example of a Sunbelt growth capital," Packer told CL in a phone interview conducted last Friday morning, explaining why he focused on the Bay area as part of his examination of the country (there are four chapters about Tampa).