Burning Transparancy level into an Image

[TJ Frame]

Hi all,
 Anyone know how to "collapse" or "burn in" the alpha channel of an image 
such that the image no longer has any transparency but looks like it did 
when it still had the transparency?
 I'm making an app that manipulates graphics on top of an imported 
background image and activating the blend of the background image reduces 
speed greatly vs. having a non blended image underneath.
 Right now I'm kludging it by bringing the source image into an image 
control, setting its blend level (either directly through the Alphadata or 
the Blendlevel), then saving it as a jpeg and reimporting the image back 
into Rev...
 I would be grateful if anyone has a more elegant solution by correctly 
dipping into the Imagedata/Alphadata the first time
 Thanks,
 - TJ