Eideard

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn would seek to remove Jerry Yang as chief executive of Yahoo Inc if Icahn succeeded in a proxy battle against the company over its failure to reach a deal with Microsoft…

“It’s no longer a mystery to me why Microsoft’s offer isn’t around,” the Wall Street Journal quoted Icahn as saying. “How can Yahoo keep saying they’re willing to negotiate and sell the company on the one hand, while at the same time they’re completely sabotaging the process without telling anyone?”

Yahoo fired back in a statement: “Yahoo’s board of directors, including Jerry Yang, has been crystal clear that it would consider any proposal by Microsoft that was in the best interests of its shareholders.”

Curiouser and curiouser. And sometimes funnier!

On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.

Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield was attacked on January 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.

“They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn’t have any money he didn’t deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him…”

Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4½ months, until he died of an infection on May 18…

The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press’ requests for comment.

This is why I don’t have an all-encompassing position on capital punishment. I feel, case-by-case, we have to consider protecting the public, legitimate likelihood of rehabbing an offender, a number of qualities including aspects as dry as cost-benefit ratios.

And, then, there’s justice.

A Bloomington man who died last year at age 100, never married or had children, lived simply and supported himself by caring for other people’s lawns and property has left his entire $650,000 estate to Indiana University’s Hilltop Garden and Nature Center…

The gift is the largest donation in Hilltop’s 60-year history. Hilltop is an auxiliary unit of the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

A 1968 photo of a 10-year-old girl holding up a giant zucchini inspired the idea of the bequest. Initially, the George E. Archer Fund will provide full scholarships for 10 children in Hilltop’s Youth Garden Program.

Archer worked for many years for Bloomington resident Edwin Cohen, the executor of his estate.

“George tended our yard. He appeared to be very poor. He drove a decrepit pickup truck and wore tattered work clothes. He lived in a mobile home that was several cuts below substandard,” Cohen remembered. “Yet my wife and I admired George as an able and dependable helper who neither drank, smoked, cursed or gambled…

Cohen’s involvement in the estate began in 2004 after Archer broke his hip and was moved into a care facility. Archer’s attorney, who had become his guardian, quickly created a will for Archer.

“George was distressed. He believed he had been unjustly confined. His displeasure increased when he belatedly discovered that his will named his lawyer the primary beneficiary of his considerable estate,” Cohen said…

“George needed a new will with an acceptable beneficiary. Try as he might, he could not name one,” Cohen added. “Basically, George was a loner. He had no real friends. He cared little for organizations and causes. I thought his beneficiary ought to have something to do with gardening, since that was his lifetime vocation. When I recalled the zucchini picture of my daughter at Hilltop, it struck me that that was an ideal beneficiary.”

Archer readily agreed and proudly said later at a court hearing, “My estate is going to help boys and girls.” After his death, it was found that Archer’s estate amounted to $650,000. The attorney who tried to receive it has since been disciplined for his actions.

Nice to see a happy ending for a change.

I’m going to try to lay this out in three pieces. First, an article appears in Vanity Fair over the weekend implying among other things that Bill might be sleeping around while he’s on the road for Hillary:

Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton’s post–White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife’s campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton’s medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say “no.” Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self.

Second, Bill blows up on the ropeline, handshaking supporters, he gets asked for a reaction to the article:

Former President Bill Clinton today unleashed a salty stream of epithets to describe former New York Times reporter and current Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum, calling him “sleazy,” “dishonest,” “slimy” and a “scumbag.”

The former president made the comment at a local campaign event after I asked him if Purdum’s much-commented upon Vanity Fair story was weighing on his mind…

“[He’s] sleazy,” he said referring to Purdum. “He’s a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him . . . And I haven’t read [the article]. But he told me there’s five or six just blatant lies in there. But he’s a real slimy guy,” the former president said.

When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred.

“That’s all right– he’s still a scumbag,” Clinton said. ” Let me tell ya– he’s one of the guys — he’s one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater to Kenneth Starr. He’s just a dishonest guy– can’t help it.”

Third, Bill Clinton has apologized for his language; but, another question is raised in the NY Times coverage of the incident:
Speaking to a reporter for the (Huffington Post) Web site — who campaign aides said did not identify herself as a journalist and said she hated the article before asking for his reaction — Mr. Clinton said the article was part of a pattern of media bias against Mrs. Clinton and in favor of her rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama.

A blogger should observe journalistic conventions if they want the rights and responsibilities of a reporter. I didn’t hear anything about blogging or reporting in the recording.

Discussion at Dvorak Uncensored prompts me to amplify this last remark:

What motivated my concern was the concept of someone’s remarks being “Off the Record”. Any statement defining remarks as off-the-record have to precede the remarks. That’s the way it works. If you don’t know you’re speaking to a reporter, that changes the ground rules somewhat. Certainly, it changes how someone perceives the need to do so.