The rightious indignation over the poor treatment of veterans rises and falls and seems to go in and out of style every so often like the cause du jour, the political flavor of the week.

Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter. It's the Shame Game. When it's the Republicans who wield military force and the predictable result is grievous injury and death to our young troops, it's the Democrats turn to shit on the Republicans for their ill treatment of "our fallen heroes."

When it's the Democrats who push our sons and daughters into the meat grinder, it's the Republicans who get to give long-winded speeches and point the finger of shame at the Republicans for not taking care of our veterans.

Round and round it goes, until it fades from memory, until next time.

Who is the real villian here? Is it the VA, currently in the hands of Jim Nichols, a Republican political hack who was appointed specifically to cut VA programs? Yes, in part. Nichols last year tried to cut VA funding by $2 billion, saying it wasn't needed. But it's not just him.

It's the feckless nature of the American people. They swell with pride at the sacrifice of those who serve. You can draw a crowd of flag-waving patriots when Memorial Day rolls around. But after the marching band has passed and they retreat to their homes, they don't write letters to Congress complaining that the disabled heroes don't get fair treatment. No sir. They write letters complaining that they are being taxed to death and won't their Congressman please, please, please lower their taxes no matter what programs get cut.

If being hypocrite were a hanging crime, the trees of America would groan under the weight of dangling corpses.

The truth is, unless you are related to a disabled veteran and see what they go through, nobody really gives a shit about you until its time for the next parade, or the next opportunity to bash a political opponent.

So this coming Memorial Day, should you be in a place where the flag waving patriots whoop and cheer "Support Our Troops," there you will find the real villians of the shameful way we treat our veterans. They'll be there covering their faces with the American flag, hiding their hypocrisy.

Back in the '70s when Norman Lear created the sitcom "All In The Family" with "Archie Bunker" being the show's axis of contempt for his racism, his hypocrisy, his selfishness, his ignorance of history etc., Lear learned to his horror that almost half of his show's viewers didn't get it.

Here he had created the most bald-faced and obvious satire using an archtyptical character so completely reprehensible that everyone would get the joke. So he thought. But a funny thing happened.

The portion of the American public Lear was lampooning, tuned in to see Archie Bunker expressing their own twisted view of reality and they sincerely thought that Lear had written the Archie character as the true American patriot and right-thinking hero that they fancied themselves to be.

As it turns out, Lear had a long-running hit TV show with a couple of spin-offs to boot. The Liberals tuned in to see a satire of how stupid the Right Wingers were. And the Right Wingers tuned in to see Archie verbally belittle his own daughter Gloria and her idiot husband, the ultra-left wing hippie Archie called "meathead."

Something for everybody.

That's basically what happened at the Correspondents' Dinner. Satire is totally lost on true believers. The reason why so few people were willing to laugh openly at Colbert's humor, and why the press ignored it afterwards, is because the true believers didn't get it. It flew right over their heads. The things that Colbert was saying was just a reflection of themselves in a flattering, not derogatory light.

Colbert could have used his time more effectively, and economically, if he would have just walked to the podium and said, "President Bush, you son-of-a-bitch, you've lied to the American people and thousands are dead and crippled because of you. Shame on you. Fuck you. Now resign." Thank the audience and leave.

Mom and Dad: Scotty, you told us you cleaned your room, put the dirty clothes in the laundry and finished your term paper for school. You said it was all done. That was three months ago. Now we see your room is still filthy, there's dirty underwear hanging from the lampshade and you haven't even started your term paper and it was due last Monday!

Scotty: It's not fair. You're always on my back! I'm on the way to accomplishing the mission and achieving victory here. You should be encouraging me. Your criticism is soooo like bummin' me out man.

A good definition of an idiot is someone who keeps doing the same thing in the same way, but expects a different outcome.

"When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday -- no matter what happened Tuesday." -- Steven Colbert

Hey, if you don't like TMW, you're only a click away from the exit. Take it.