I'm not particularly in favor of fascism. I don't also care much for the current government. This said, Capone was a murderer, among many other uncivil traits. Some people can be heroes for defying the government. Capone was a nasty guy, and particularly evil among evil men.

Libertarians appear to me to be unable or willing to take responsibility for others, and in this specific measure often exhibit the same uncivil characteristics. Rules that are for other people are also often characteristics of narcissism, another lens to look at this behavior. Where is the balance? It is, and always will be tenuous.

Fill in the form, and you're innocent. Yes, sucks. It's part of civility. Civility is active participation. That's why I vote.

Um, no.

I've done the report. So have any # of slashdotters. No big deal. I have to deal with at least a hundred different kinds of government forms a year-- or my CPA does. Sucks.

Catches crooks, and money launderers, and the other leeches of a civil society. Still sucks. Still needed.

We must disagree on both points.

Here's the basics: we need taxes because we need government. We need to track money; all Hastert had to do was do the filing. That's all.

In a civil world, we're civil, which means there are places and reasons to cooperate with government. In an ideal world, everyone's honest, but it's not ideal or even close. So we agree on civil and criminal proceedings. Yes, they're unevenly applied. It sucks. But not in this case.

Your estimation that drugs fuel organized crime is woefully naive. It's a fraction on a good day. Hacking banks, credit card fraud, hijacking, counterfeiting, illegal gambling, let me count the ways-- and these are just the ones that are patently illegal, and not repurposed into seemingly legitimate enterprise.

Monitoring your finances doesn't need a warrant when you do transfers over 10K. Look it up. Do the report and there's not a problem. GPS? Yeah, SCOTUS scotched it. Tapping your phone? Tell your congressman. I don't like them either.

In a way, Hastert was involved in organize crime. Like Capone (etc) that's not what bagged him. He screwed up. A CPA or attorney would have warned him.

Hastert was a tool in many schemes, IMHO, the extortion being just one part of it.

I'm with you. It would be a massive effort. I would be happy to contribute to making that effort, and the analysis that would follow, year after year.

Why we don't have open government finance reporting at all levels is sheer chicanery.

You miss my point.

It's about openness in transactions. The situations are analogous, not congruent.

Private property can also be the context for untold and massive greed. Not all the time, but government costs money, and good government costs good money. The screws currently turned on state governments across the country have resulted in massive deficits, and only the bankers win, in that game.

I don't like crooked cops, either. Getting the "capo" was the way to dry up a huge supply of illegal talent. Beyond racketeering, murder, extortion, and the other multitudes of crimes, it also destabilized neighborhoods, families, and more.

All you have to do is the reporting. If you don't, there is a presumption that you're laundering money. Why do we have more CPAs in the US than you can shake a stick at? This very reason. Yeah, lots of fudging gets done. That's another thread.

We agree that equal enforcement is a good idea. It's not a witch hunt. Others have also been caught in this trap as well.

We must disagree.

We did indeed pass and have enforced, a lot of legislation that's helped reduce corruption. No, it's not stopped,and SuperPACs allow bribery on a huge scale. But the RICO Act, along with a long list of others, have helped keep things somewhat open and at least partially above board. They're not thoroughly successful. If Hastert had done the reporting, he wouldn't be in deep crap at this point, his secrets intact for better and worse. The reporting has a purpose: keep large transfers from skirting reporting in taxes.... like taking your annual profits to a tax haven, and so forth.

The man otherwise, appears to be a skunk for this and many other reasons.

Back in the 20s and 30s in the US, the mob ran roughshod over the land. The only way devised to corral them-- because of massive corruption on local, state, and federal levels-- was to invoke tax laws. It worked. It got Capone, and a bunch of the mob.

Hastert is caught in a similar pickle. Meet the reporting requirements; they're designed to trap this, and other kinds of illicit behavior. Trillions of dollars have left the USA, some of it legally (Apple Computer) and some of it not. The laws were designed to trap floods of untracked cash (Dennis Hastert's payments). It worked. I want the law; I want the reporting requirements; don't presume you understand the motivations of /.ers.

It's tough to fight even bad journalism, and in this particular case, a particularly foul and fruitless move. Good to know they used astute PR before they made their decision to litigate.

Vendor-driven marketing platitudes bearing little resemblance to reality using shortened memes for theme driven effect.

Two copies, one safety deposit box as otherwise mentioned here, and the other with your lawyer. If you don't have one, with a trusted relative who ALSO has the 2K+ software and/or hashes needed to rejuvenate the data, intact.

Only offsite works. I've been through floods and fires, and curious children and pets. Only offsite works. Forget the rest. You need to test it annually in the restoration phase, too. Keep copies of the keys.

Go ahead. Click the link. Get your IP address registered NOW! Oh, wait....