What does it take for MLS Disciplinary Committee action, anyway?

The MLS Disciplinary Committee just gets stranger and stranger. Their uncanny ability to pick and choose incidents is reaching a rolling boil, and one really just has to wonder what their actual purpose is.

Let's use examples, shall we. Here's a blatant bit of foul play from Tim Cahill that didn't see additional action taken by the committee.

And here's one from our good friends (cough) to the east, Colorado Rapids, where Alan Gordon swings a high, wild elbow. He wasn't punished.

But here's one from early March. Lovel Palmer's a bit naughty in this one (we still like him here at RSL Soapbox, though) and gets hit by the committee, but the incident is not worse — in fact, it's probably more tenable — than the two unpunished calls above.

And in case you weren't certain, there is an RSL connection here, too. Here's Omar Gonzalez with a naughty one on Alvaro Saborio.

The question remains: What's the disciplinary committee do? Is there a reason for the marked inconsistency?