Yeah, I'm here - along with my baby-pea sized kidney stone that has made things pretty miserable over at LABO (anyone who has struggled with one of these suckers knows what I mean). Anyway, since cable and percocet only get you so far, I've been making occasional swipes at the wires to see what I've missed. Actually not much, other than the quixotic adventures of those crazy kids from California, Ron Burkle and Brad Greenspan, who keep talking up an alternative to the Bancroft family selling off Dow Jones to Rupert. At last check - and keep in mind you're reading the words of one drugged-out blogger - Burkle isn't even interested in making a bid, but playing a kind of consulting role in the dealmaking. And Greenspan, the fellow who everyone keeps saying was the founder of MySpace (he wasn't), keeps pushing a plan in which he and some mystery investors would purchase a minority stake of DJ - apparently on the theory that the Bancrofts would fall for just about anyone other than Murdoch. In Sun Valley this week, Murdoch told the AP's Seth Sutel that the Bancrofts "keep changing their mind.” I mean, this thing is getting so booooring.

The most intriguing Murdoch-related news this week comes not from Sun Valley, but from - ta-da! - publisher Judith Regan, the ex-News Corp. employee who was fired last year. Gossips Rush & Molloy at the NY Daily News were tipped off about Regan supposedly having juicy tapes of phone calls and meetings that supposedly will support her $20 million lawsuit against Murdoch (wrongful termination, defamation). The tapes "not only bolster her position against News Corp, but may prove damning to more than a few Fox executives," one source told the paper. (Hollywood attorney Bert Fields is handling her case, if you recall.) News Corp executives claim that Regan used the phrase "Jewish cabal" in one conversation, a charge she denies.

Time for more cable and pain killers.