One of the better Congressional freshmen is Alan Grayson (D-FL), and he is now using the term amputate with regard to AIG:

Grayson joined fellow Democrats as well as Republicans in blasting AIG for its refusal to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus payments. He painted the government’s choice as a stark one, using the metaphor of treating a wound versus amputating a limb.

“It’s not clear to me at all that we’re taking the correct approach by allowing AIG to continue to operate, regardless of who owns it,” Grayson told me. “At this point, ownership is becoming an amorphous concern when comes to a company that borrows millions and millions without any prospect of paying it back. … Do we continue to allow the bleeding or not?”

Note that I am not suggesting that the distinguished gentleman from Florida reads my blog, merely that my suggestion of amputating diseased banks is something that other people are coming to independently.

The banking system has more than zombie banks. It has gangrenous limbs that will continue to poison the rest of the body until removed.