As the Aug.1 Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) annual meeting approaches, Jerry Yang tries the personal, public approach to counter the latest from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Carl Icahn. The gist: stop the diversions already and let me do my job (as long as I have it). Yang to the WSJ: “I think that I can bring stability back to Yahoo, and I want to get on with building (the) company. ... I think that the destabilizing by Microsoft has become more and more intentional.” And this leading contender for biggest understatement of all time: “I am not happy about it.” Yang calls Microsoft’s statement earlier this week that it can’t negotiate with the current Yahoo board “baffling” and denies once again charges that the board gave the search proposal short shrift. Even Microsoft said the offer had very little “gas in the tank.”

SEE ALSO: Yahoo To Microsoft/Icahn: Just Make Us An Offer Today

As for the obligatory Carl Icahn comment: “To trust Mr. Icahn and his board is really a bad choice.”

Meanwhile, Ken Li reports from Sun Valley that Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller said Icahn would get more support in his proxy battle if he pledged to sell Yahoo for no less than $33 a share. Legg Mason is Yahoo’s third largest institutional shareholder.