you know for your media project c.d.o. gondar t.v. dot com. coming up on our t.v. it seems the u.s. and iran have toned down rhetoric about a possible war iran's current president may be a new wood turning point in strengthening diplomatic ties between the two nations more on how things are developing ahead. a house vote pushes forward a bill that may soon leave americans hungry the bill's supposed to cut millions of people from receiving food stamps a look at what this could mean coming up. and on the net the scope of free speech just got a little bigger the court of appeals has declared that facebook like posts is protected under the first amendment we'll tell you more about this change in tonight's tech report.

it's thursday september nineteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm maggie lopez and you are watching r.t. well on the eve of newly elected president hassan rowhani is visit to the united states ronny majority's unexpectedly freed a loving of the country's most prominent political prisoners from jail the list of people freed includes journalists authors activists and attorneys most notably the woman you're looking at now serene so today a human rights lawyer who represented several activists that protested against the iranian government is a move human rights groups have been asking the government to do for years and indeed many say that this is a physical sign of a political shift toward moderation in the country but it doesn't look like the u.s. is ready to eat pressure on the country any time soon a federal judge just authorized the u.s. to seize control of a new york skyscraper. authorities discovered that it is secretly owned and

controlled by the iranian government and the money the building generated from tenets is in direct violation of federal money laundering laws and sanctions against iran are to correspondent marina fortnight fills us in on the political shifts in iran. the great empire and its favorite nemesis for decades relations between the u.s. and iran have been ice cold but in recent months attitudes have been thawing as tehran and washington have taken steps to overcoming years of hostility to begin with president hassan rouhani as appointment of foreign minister mohammad as a result was received positively by western officials this summer the reef a western educated former iranian ambassador to the u.n. has been called a worthy negotiating partner the appointment has been seen by some as an olive branch to the white house another optimistic development came in july when one hundred thirty one members of the u.s.

house of representatives wrote a letter to u.s. president barack obama encouraging him to use the opportunity offered by president rouhani for the improvement of bilateral relations speaking of letters iran confirmed this week that president rouhani and president obama exchanged written correspondence rare contact between the leaders of two nations that cut off diplomatic ties in one thousand nine hundred eighty in his letter mr obama indicated that the u.s. is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in a way that allows iran to demonstrate that its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes and on wednesday iranian officials released prominent iranian lawyer nasreen so today from prison after being jailed for three years for her human rights work in the past the u.s. actively force a today's release in addition iranian media reports that thirteen other political prisoners rounded up for involvement in the two thousand and nine anti-government

protests had been released this comes as iran says new moderate leader who has promised more freedoms at home and constructive engagement with the world travels to new york for the united nations general assembly debate however on. heels of mr rouhani is a rival the u.s. government is preparing to seize a thirty six storey many one skyscraper that prosecutors say is secretly owned and controlled by the iranian government a u.s. judge has ruled that the owners of this fifth avenue building known as the alvey foundation and asset corp transferred rental income and other funds to an iranian state owned bank a violation of u.s. sanctions this seizure could not come at a worse time considering that the leaders of the u.s. and iran could possibly meet face to face next week reporting from new york or in a fortnight r.t. . that's not the only news coming out from iran in an interview with n.b.c.

news president rouhani pledged to tear down barriers that prevented iranians from surfing the internet freely he said he believes all people should have the right to access the free flow of information and have a platform for dialogue he also went on to say about his country will not pursue nuclear weapons so a lot of promises are coming out from this new president but is this change that we can believe in i was joined earlier by demobbed a policy director at the national iranian american council and i asked him what we should make of all of this. these are all extremely positive signs this could all be leading to a historic meeting between president obama and president rouhani at the u.n. general assembly next week rouhani since taking office six weeks ago has he said a lot of positive things a lot of people in washington were saying well that's all well and good but we don't know if he's actually going to be able to deliver prime minister of israel

netanyahu said he's smiling while he's building a bomb he's a wolf in sheep's clothing and yet what we found is that rouhani over the past six weeks has managed to convert these positive words into positive actions he's demonstrating that he can deliver he has a little bit of space right now he's not going to have an infinite infinite amount of time to do so because there are hardliners in iran who don't want any sort of approach model with the u.s. but there is time right now the question is is obama going to be able to do the same thing and hold off hardliners here in washington from sabotaging potential talks so he gave us examples of some of those physical things that he has actually changed or not the things that he's necessarily just talked about well you know one of the main campaign promises that he he made was in regard to human rights situation the securitized environment inside of iran and yesterday we saw this sort of landmark announcement that nasa and so today was released from prison along with ten other political prisoners this is

a case that was raised by human rights organizations by president obama himself she was a major face of the crackdown against human rights defenders democracy defenders in iran in two thousand and nine she's now released rouhani made good on this promise he also said he was going to try to get the leaders of the green movement released as well and there file has now been transferred to the national security council which can now make the decision actually release them very promising signs on the nuclear issue you know nothing is going to come outside of negotiations but already iran is converting some of its its hire and rich uranium to fuel purposes that can't be. use for virtually can't be used for a nuclear weapon and they've they've taken other steps to signal willingness to put further caps on the nuclear program and i'm glad you brought that up jamal actually we have a clip from president rouhani speaking with n.b.c. news hour about this is this nuclear program mr president these are israeli prime minister netanyahu is words not mine he has said about you his strategy is to be

a wolf in sheep's clothing smile and build it can you say now categorically then that iran will not build a nuclear weapon under any circumstances whatsoever. firstly an occupier and looser a government that does injustice to the people and has brought instability to the region that's warmongering policies shouldn't allow itself to give speeches about a democratically and freely elected government we have clearly stated that we are not going to sit on nuclear weapons and will not follow him boot so do we have reason to to trust him what can we do to trust him in the future well i think that you know this is a positive sign we can't you know nobody should operate on the assumption that we you know once i can trust the other side is about verifiable agreements but i think that there is reason for hope with rouhani because for one he actually has the

backing of the supreme leader this is this is a pretty stunning development the supreme leader has had said look we need to be more flexible at the negotiating table iran needs to be prepared for compromise he's laying the groundwork for compromise the supreme leader has also allowed rouhani to basically take over authority of the nuclear negotiations something that previously was overseen by the supreme leader and bodies like the ira g c now it's in the president's domain and rouhani has been instrumental in pushing for a compromise on the nuclear program and has said pursuing a nuclear weapon is not in the strategic interest of iran and i think that's something that he clearly. believes and we just have about a minute left but obviously the u.n. is coming up next week how are american politicians responding are they willing to listen well president obama deserves a lot of credit actually he initiated a series of letter exchanges with rouhani rouhani said that these were positive exchanges he was happy to see these letters and it looks like there was some

positive communication between the two sides now congress is a different story there are some in congress who want there to be a diplomatic off ramp they saw how the syria debate played out and saw that americans don't want war in the middle east on the other hand you have folks like senator lindsey lindsey graham who is saying he actually is going to meet all of this positively by iran with a resolution to authorize war against iran to basically threaten the country because he says they've been emboldened somehow so i don't think that lindsey graham and other folks are necessarily updating their talking points they're sort of acting as if you're on hasn't changed when the reality is there are all these positive signals and hopefully hopefully the white house is going to be able to take advantage of them hopefully the white house and also the iranian people jamal policy director at the national iranian american council thank you so much for joining me and my pleasure well we know that virginia is for lovers and tonight is no exception liberty lovers are descending on virginia this week for the twenty thirteen at liberty political action conference the first night of speeches just

started about two hours ago with senator rand paul kicking off the night artie's perry and boring was there and tells us what this conference is all about. and we're at the liberty political action conference this is ron paul's campaign for liberty the annual get together where they bring together people from all across the nation on this message of liberty they have over forty featured speakers the first one to speak to kick off the evening with senator rand paul he says the liberty movement is growing faster than ever as they united people from the republican side and the democratic side on this notion take a listen to what he just said we become the party of justice the party that believes that criminal laws should be just that penalty should be portion of the crime i think we can get people to come to our party because i don't think the democrats have done anything on these issues for years. if you think about indefinite detention the idea and i had this debate with john mccain on the floor

and i said you can you could send an american citizen to guantanamo bay without a trial with without a jury without a lawyer without any of these as yet of the dangers and we're here the whole weekend they have activists training on friday saturday and sunday and it's been a very successful event most successful and three years they've had this over seven hundred to eight hundred people have registered and more people are trickling in and it's a pax weekend for ron paul as he's moved on to bigger and better things since retiring from congress and washington i'm perry and boring artie. if you are one of the forty seven million people currently using the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program to put food on your family's plate each night you're going to want to listen to this just about an hour ago republican congressman pushed through a bill of a from the house of representatives that will cut the food stamp program by nearly forty billion dollars over the next ten years the house voted to seventeen two to

ten to pass the bill fifteen republicans voted against it and not a single democrat voted for it here's what it does the nutrition reform and work opportunity act would cut nearly twice as much as was originally proposed by the house farm bill it will the congressional budget office says that three point eight million people would be cut from the program by next year and about eight hundred fifty thousand dollars would have their benefits reduced if this goes through the full congress and all of this is an addition to significant cuts that will begin in november i was joined earlier by because bomb director of policy advocacy and research at the federation of protestant welfare agencies and i asked her how the arguments played out in the house. you know the fact is we do have forty seven million in merican who are hungry and in need they've lost their jobs during

the great recession they have had their hours reduce they've many of had to declare bankruptcy as in the new of course you have the elderly who are impoverished have a very fixed income so really all these debates in the house about cutting such a lifeline in our country needs to be based upon the facts of who are the hungry and what the need the extensive need is out there and one of the major part of that republican lawmakers say is that there is rampant fraud and abuse for the snap programs first of all is there any proof of this major abuse and if so would cutting spending help solve that problem. now that is a complete myth it's untrue that federal government data has consistently shown that food stamps are the supplemental nutrition assistance program has very very low fraud has

a very high quality control measures and so that is not at all a fact to go on we have a situation where we the government data that just came out the census data shows about forty six point five million americans who are impoverished now that's roughly the same number of forty seven million americans who rely on the food stamp program so the fact is is that the people who are in poverty who are in need based upon government data are the same ones that are receiving the supplemental nutrition assistance program and so there is anybody who is talking about is just looking at the facts we you know we have a situation where not only do we want to make sure that this vital lifeline to hungry americans is maintained we also have the fact that food stamps help the economy there basically it's money going to people who are going to spend it in

mediately to put food on the table for their children and themselves so it helps to keep the the slow recovery continuing if we cut forty billion dollars from this program you're going to have stores grocery stores. in these very struggling communities have the economic engine a source of in economic engine be be stopped immediately and that's just something no sense of fame time however fox news interviewed a surfer who was using snap benefits to buy lobster and fu she and that story got many many people riled up do you think that that is representative of how the food assistance program is being you. you know you always see conservatives bring out that one oddball case that one grid very rare case that usually gets caught by the various food and welfare agencies immediately they have very stringent rules

and reporting requirements so i myself as a child was on food stamps with my family when we were immigrants or refugees from the war coming to this country and we had nothing but basically the clothes are back so we are much more representative of again the forty seven million people by several poverty data showing that these are people in need and and we can't be diverted from the immense need out there by one all odd case that is just not representative of the rest of the country now is director of policy advocacy and research at the federation of protestant welfare agencies. we're raising through the local aisles of your supermarkets as americans we trust that when a certain need a stamp with the u.s.d.a. inspection seal you can trust that that food is safe but what if i told you that half of the u.s.d.a. inspectors in the industrial meat processing plants will soon be replaced by people

who work for the meat companies themselves and centrally privatizing this inspection would you still trust it well that's exactly what's happening if the u.s. department of agriculture gets its way and it could be happening in the not too distant future spondon america david reports. it's the latest u.s.d.a. plan set to roll out across the country a meat inspection program allowing pork producers to cut the number of u.s.d.a. safety inspectors at plants in half replacing them with private inspectors hired by meat companies themselves this according to a new in-depth washington post report that lays out how the government is neglecting to stop contaminated meat the pilot program was implemented fifteen years ago in five different pork plants nationwide but the results of the experimental program were staggering according to a report put out by the u.s.d.a. inspector general in may three of the five court plants were on

a top ten list of worst plants dealing with health and safety violations many of which included the outright failure to remove visible fecal matter it's a problem food safety advocates like alexis baden meyer say points to a serious lapse in regulation we're letting the companies do the job of and specters and even control the u.s.d.a. inspectors control where they found on the line and control what access they have to the plant and how much authority they have a very dangerous situation when we already know we have food safety problems food safety problems indeed according to the center for disease control there are approximately seventy six million cases of food borne illness each year in the united states three hundred twenty five thousand of them result in hospitalizations and five thousand of them in death. however those statistics haven't seemed to slow down the u.s.d.a. which is eager to implement this in over six hundred hog plants nationwide all despite the fact that the department has yet to study whether the program is even

working tony corbo of watchdog organization food and water watch calls this lack of review disturbing it's obvious. in the last fifteen years whether it's the that the pilots that they've been running and trick in the turkey plants. or in the hog plant that there has not been a thorough analysis and their data does not support the theory that this is going to improve food safety but it's not only food safety advocates that are concerned over this program it's a sentiment echoed by local butchers like brian malone who worry that the plant's bottom line will negatively impact him and his customers be a little bit leery about it. you know that because a lot of companies out is worry about the bottom dollar. that i worry about the customers you know that are they worried about what they're feeding anybody so the u.s.d.a. being there is a big help for all of us because you know they make sure everybody does the correctly and official from the u.s.d.a. argue that the increase in fecal matter findings is actually

a sign that the program is working he said we do many more checks for fecal matter in pilot plants than we do in traditional plants so it is not surprising that we are finding more because that is what our inspection personnel are focusing on despite their insistence that the program is working the department has finally said it will conduct a review by march of next year with food safety advocates handing on that last hope of bringing this program to a halt in washington a mere a david r.t. all right all you facebook users out there get your computer mel serenity chances are you're in a like this next story the fourth u.s. circuit court of appeals ruled unanimously on wednesday that the like button is just like sticking a political sign in your front yard and therefore is protected by the first amendment as substantive free speech the ruling comes from a two thousand and nine case involving a virginia sheriff who ran for reelection only to have

a number of his own employees like the facebook of his and poet when he won he dismissed a number of them from duty and that is how this whole debacle came up so will this pave the way for reed tweets from youtube likes and other things to be protected by free speech earlier i was joined by matt bender he's the producer of the majority report and he explained the court case in more detail. sure magen basically the fourth circuit court overruled lower court's decision that facebook likes did not constitute protection under the first amendment simply because i guess they felt clicking the like button is just in consequential or just not significant enough to fall under the protections of free speech but the fourth circuit court ruled that it is indeed an expression and like you said we've previously said that putting up a campaign sign also there has been you know political armbands statements

burning a flag even these are all things protected under the first amendment and i see no reason why the first. facebook like shouldn't be put on the first amendment so who exactly does this ruling if that can people from private company who negative posts about their bosses without a fear of record. i mean with a private company it's always it's always i mean there's protections but there's always i mean there is still i guess you can say you know freedom of speech but not freedom from the consequences in this particular case though it was a deputy sheriff so it was a public service so i mean was that was that is this something you know fire someone over i mean it seems like something petty between the the sheriff and the deputy sheriff and on top of that the like is so it's still vague the facebook like especially liking a page or even twitter when you're following someone i mean i follow donald trump on twitter i'm not a fan of donald trump i basically follow him to to make sure i can see what he says

so i can heckle him and hit him every now and then for his political views i mean he has over two million followers two million people do not like donald trump please it's a it's basically you know you have to look at it as it is is it is it is the first amendment protects all forms of the speech is it doesn't or does it make the does it make a difference between. how significant the speech is and it doesn't there's doesn't the first woman does that say you know it has to be sincere there must be sincerity behind that there must be some sort of significance if it's political speech you're protected by it i'm glad that you brought up twitter although i'm not sure our founding fathers would have had any idea what how it was but do you think this paves the way for. even if you're a company or the government doesn't agree with what you're really tweeting or how about you tube likes i mean i definitely think that all these forms of social media interactions should definitely be covered by the first amendment because there are

forms of expression i mean we're living in an era we're living in a narrow citizens united where money is speech i mean people who use the internet they get these or anywhere they go to the library you don't need to have money to use the internet so this is a form of speech that maybe the the affluent to the politically connected or have access to that that others do too that others don't i mean i'm batting millions and billions of dollars of money with millions of likes and. i mean if you can spread the word through activism on the internet and that transforms into on the street activism or political activism that changes laws creates laws i don't see a problem with that whatsoever that has not been there producer of the majority report. well here in the us we love our ladders the social ladder the financial ladder we love the feeling that we're always moving on or moving up but

for many this sense of wealth really isn't as good as it might seem and the perception of it is lower than you would think the residents laurie harshness with more on the american sense of our own worth. american pride that's a thing americans are proud to live in a country where dreams come true and you are free to be anything you want to be american pride is a big deal which is why it came as a surprise to researchers at the independent norco organization in chicago to find out that american pride might be slipping in their general social survey they asked

americans to put themselves into a class upper middle working or low where it's not about how much money you make it's about what class do you perceive yourself a part of bridge decades the vast majority of americans have seen themselves as middle or working class even during past economic downturns these people have called themselves lower class it seems the term evokes a stigma of laziness and stagnation something that goes against american pride but on last year's survey they found a record number of americans put themselves into the lower class category. eight used to be true that only people without jobs considered themselves lower class but now working people are starting to consider themselves lower class too so some of the shift might be explained by the fact that more of our jobs offer fewer

hours and less pay but economic hardship doesn't completely explain the findings census data shows that poverty rates were just as high in. one thousand nine hundred three in one thousand nine hundred three in those years far fewer americans call themselves lower class the real difference the researchers point to is the widening gap between rich and poor it's been five years since the economy tanked in two thousand and eight five years since we collectively learned just how badly the one percent is screwy the rest of it since then it's just one of the. the rich keep getting richer they've captured ninety five per cent of all the income growth in the country since the crash we're working harder making less money and they're constantly bombarded with wealth glorification and stories about rich bankers so it

makes sense that we are starting to think lower of ourselves our lawmakers and percy holders need to realize they are driving this country into the ground and need to tone down their at the level of greed that they need to realize it's not a matter of life and death it's even worse than that it's a matter of american pride. tonight to talk about that by following me on twitter at the risk of it. all right that doesn't for me for tonight but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america and for the latest and greatest of the stories we cover today and a few that we just did not have time to get to check out our web site r c dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter to find out what i'm doing when i'm not behind this desk at meghan underscore lopez tell me what you think of all

the stories that you saw me cover today and tell me what you want me to cover if you didn't see it tonight but for now have a great night. more news today violence has once again flared up. saying these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day. we grieve the loss of every soldier.