The opposition is already mounting. Against what, I'm not sure.

Yes, at least one day before anyone knows anything about a possible ballot measure, some nasty old curmudgeons hold a press conference denouncing said cloudy, speculative ballot question that hasn't been unveiled in any capacity yet.

Welcome to Sacramento.

I never expected there not to be opposition to the plan, but I really didn't expect a pre-emptive strike from them. (People United can no longer criticize the war in Iraq, by the way. Neocons.) Maybe I was naive, thinking community activists might want to first look at the ballot language proposed to the county supervisors before denouncing it. I don't know. I like knowing what I'm talking about before spouting off. Maybe that's just me.

Lots of us have been critical of the Maloofs' process so far – just yesterday I bristled when I found out the Maloofs wanted to pay less than 20 percent of the arena cost. No one in this town is going to give them carte blanche to build a Taj Maloof on the taxpayer's dime.

But you know what? There's plenty of time to discuss this stuff! If an agreement is reached, we have three full months to hash this stuff out. Plenty of time for press conferences! Plenty of time for huffing and puffing! Time is not necessarily of the essence, especially at this point.

In the spirit of the above sentiment, we're not going to get into how having the Kings and the Maloofs in town does more for the homeless situation than the city does, or how the arena will benefit the downtown and suburban arts scenes like nothing else. We're going to, you know, wait to see what comes out of the negotiations first.

(And speaking of curmudgeons, Dan Walters spends 700 words setting the arena scene, only to tell us in two paragraphs that a) ARCO isn't that bad, and b) sales taxes are regressive. Gee, thanks for that insight, oh Wise Man Walters. Shouldn't you be talking about infrastructure bonds or something?)