By Rick Kisonak for Seven Days. 

Robert Greenwald makes documentaries. He also makes waves. And enemies. In the capital of this country, there are seriously powerful people who’d doubtless love to see him come to harm. And they’re the kind of folks who can make this happen. Robert Greenwald makes documentaries about them.

By H.H. Bhojani for AlterNet. 

Nabila’s drawings are like any other nine-year-old’s. A house rests besides a winding path, a winding path on which wander two stick figures. Tall trees, rising against the back drop of majestic hills. Clouds sprinkled over a clear sky.

By H.H Bhojani reposted on Salon.com. 

Nabila’s drawings are like any other nine-year-old’s. A house rests besides a winding path, a winding path on which wander two stick figures. Tall trees, rising against the back drop of majestic hills. Clouds sprinkled over a clear sky.

By H.H. Bhojani for Mother Jones. 

From staging filibusters and hunger strikes, to protesting drones and driving bans, women have been up to some pretty incredible things this year. This unranked list is by no means exhaustive, and behind every one of these women there are many other women and men, unsung warriors, heroes and feminists who deserve our recognition.

Here they are, in no particular order, some of the women who rocked it in 2013.

By Alyssa Figueroa for AlterNet.

2013 was a difficult year to say the least, with the government shutdown, ongoing wars, NSA spying, pervasive police brutality and much more. But there was plenty of pushback, protest and agitation against corruption and abuse of power on the part of progressives to make change and protect people's basic rights.

Originally posted on Democracy Now! 

As part of our look back at the top news stories of 2013, we have complied a list of the 20 most-viewed Democracy Now! segments on democracynow.org. Join the conversation about each of these interviews on our Facebook page and share the list directly from Pinterest.

By Jesse Hicks for The Verge. 

Robert Greenwald has made films for more than three decades; recently, that’s meant guerrilla documentaries on a small budget, released through his production company, Brave New Films. He’s used social media and inexpensive distribution to get his message out. His most recent film, Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars, investigates US drone policy, including testimony from people on the ground. Last October on Capitol Hill, Greenwald testified with the Rafiq ur Rehman family, the first Pakistani drone strike survivors to appear before Congress. In the following conversation, edited for length and clarity, he discusses why he thinks drone strikes are counterproductive, how they got to be such a major part of US policy, and why we have such a hard time talking about them.

By Alyssa Figueroa for AlterNet.

On Thursday, a U.S. drone strike hit a convoy traveling to a wedding in Yemen, killing about a dozen civilians.  The New York Times reports 11 deaths, while other reports state 17. A recent AFP report states that two of the victims were on the Yemeni government’s list of wanted Al Qaeda suspects, while most of the others have been confirmed as civilians.

By Nana Royer for St. Augustine.

Editor: A very disturbing, infuriating, informative film was shown at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship last night (Mon., Nov 25): “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars,”, sponsored by Pax Christ and Amnesty International. All of our citizenry need to know what our country is doing abroad in the name of national security. Each time a drone strike kills civilians and children, it guarantees that more terrorists are spawned. Our safety is diminished, not enhanced, as well as it being an unethical and immoral practice. This is the antithesis of what we should be doing to curb terrorism.