“It’s simple. We kill the bat.” That’s one of Kyle’s excellent “Heath Leger as the Joker” impressions and a metaphor for the financial crisis. The “bat” in this case is fear, and unless we smash the erratically flying source of what scares us, we’ll stay hiding under a blanket hoping it just goes away.

In my opinion we “kill the bat” by exposing the core that controls the over sized wings fanning our fear. I’ve killed a couple bats in my day (sorry PETA) and once stunned with a tennis racket, they shrink from a menacing black wingspan to a more manageable, egg sized rodent.

What we need is for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to insist on an open-book management analysis of the books (the real ones, too) of any financial institution receiving bailout money. We keep hearing about how no one really knows the scope of the bad assets on the books of these giants, and until we do, taxpayers will be asked to continue throwing the dollars of our great-grandchildren to these theives of today. We’ll also remain financially paralyzed from the uncertainty.

Yeah, thieves. It amazes me that that Republicans can call the stimulus plan and new budget “the greatest transfer of wealth” in our history, when the richest of the rich have been broadening the gap between them and us for the last 30 years.

It’s simple, Citi, BOA and AIG, et al… Open the Kimono so we can “kill the bat” or you don’t get another dime and you do get nationalized.