So Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed holds a press conference to promote his Falcons stadium plan? Well, two can play at that game: Yesterday, Common Cause Georgia held their own press conference to call for a public referendum on the Falcons deal. “We’re asking the people to contact members of the Atlanta City Council and ask them to let the people of Atlanta make the decision,” said Common Cause Georgia director William Perry, adding, “The public is ponying up an awful lot of money. We don’t know what the total is the public is ponying up yet. And so until we know those numbers we can’t say whether it’s a good thing or not.”

Given the continuing confusion over the numbers, he has a point, but that doesn’t mean the council is likely to listen. (One councilmember, Michael Julian Bond, huffed yesterday that “the state law rests that decision with us, where it actually should be.”) Though State Sen. Vincent Fort did do his best yesterday to shift the stadium debate through vivid imagery, saying the proposed deal is “like getting your pocket picked at 800 miles an hour.” You mean like this?