Undeterred by a dictator's ridicule and heavies' intimidation, some 100,000 Lebanese demonstrators returned to Martyrs' Square — shouting, admonishing, celebrating, hoping.

Two nods, one to Wretchard and the other to J.R.R. Tolkien:

Ah! the wind and the whiteness and the black branches of Winter upon Orod-na-Thôn!
My voice went up and sang in the sky.
And now all those lands lie under the wave.
And I walk in Ambaróna, in Tauremorna, in Aldalómë.
In my own land, in the country of Fangorn,
Where the roots are long,
And the years lie thicker than the leaves
In Tauremornalómë.

With President Bush having made himself clear on Lebanon's autonomy before the weekend, White House departmental statements released since Bashar Assad's speech are a prelude to the Bush administration's joining of the seventh exchange, where Syria will stand to lose more than it ever has. A senior official, Condoleezza Rice or the president himself should be speaking before the day is out, and I'll wait for that.