The Cedar Revolutionaries briefly lost their focus after the million-person demonstration in Martyr's Square. They weren't sure what to do next, exactly, aside from setting up a tent-city next to Rafik Hariri's grave site. Some dissidents felt like they had already won - when they clearly had not. Others were worried they would never be able to bring yet another million people down to the square for demonstrations.

The Syrian puppet regime in Beirut has been playing for time, changing the subject, and coming up with all manner of public distractions - the Pope's funeral was only the latest. People here are sick nearly to death of it, especially those who are playing a waiting game in the tent-city. So yesterday, in response to all this, they unfurled a new public campaign. It is simple, unambiguous, and pressing.

They are demanding elections on May 29. And they are demanding the government call for those elections by passing the necessary election law 30 days in advance.

Opposition members of parliament (yes, they do exist) were invited along with the media to witness the launch of the campaign. First to arrive was Nayla Moawad, the staunchest member of the opposition in Parliament. Her late husband Rene Moawad was briefly President of Lebanon in 1989 before he was assasinated by (guess who?) the Syrian Baath regime.

A giant red, white, and black sign was dramatically erected next to the tent-city. Supporters gathered around as the sign was tied to its frame and bolted to the side of a stage at the edge of the camp.

The sign says, simply, that the people of Lebanon demand elections on May 29.

On the other side of the stage an electronic sign was erected with the number 16 emblazoned across it. That's the number of days the government has left before they must call for elections or face the consequences and wrath of the people of Lebanon. Tomorrow the number on the sign will say 15. And the day after that it will say 14.

Putting these signs up in public gave the people down at the tent city a desperately needed and long-overdue shot in the arm of confidence. Music, singing, and dancing commenced.

Yesterday Prime Minster Omar Karami resigned his post for the second time. He resigned once before, was put back in power, then resigned yet again. Some members of the oppostition see this as a victory, thinking they finally got rid of him once and for all. Others think this is just political theatrics designed to distract people from what is really at stake. This isn't about Karami or any other Syrian goon in particular. This is about independence and democracy - period. The new countdown campaign will be a daily reminder of that.

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