You call that attacking the Coast Guard? Look, if I think that they have more important things to do, perhaps I think that they have useful and important responsibilities, like inspecting container ships. That is hardly attacking the agency, it is attacking the policy.
" But I have also seen them playing eco-cop without any knowledge of what they were doing, I know people who saw them getting their jollies boarding boats with nude babe sunbathers, I nearly got my boat bashed when they were conducting a "safety check" in choppy water just because they wanted to gawk at the antique yacht, and know that they tried to board a Federally documented vessel illegally (all 20 years ago)."
That post was in response to the assertion that they never harrass boaters. They are all facts, and I stand by every one of them. I have met good and bad among the Coast Guard (probably 50/50). No agency is perfect. Agencies with both rule-making administrative, and judicial powers too easily go overboard. That doesn't mean that I don't think that they do important and useful work. It does mean that I want them doing more of those things and I don't want them playing eco-cop (which is still in their recruitment advertising). That is better handled under civil law. I also don't want them harassing boaters ala airport security. Let the Navy protect itself until Congress declares war (which it should have done some time ago).