By DAN K. THOMASSON, Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON - The other day I asked a liberal friend whether he considered someone arrested in an attempted act of terror a warrior or merely a criminal? He replied that he definitely felt the person, particularly if not a citizen of this country, should be considered a warrior or enemy combatant if caught on U.S. soil or, for that matter, in a war zone.

FRANKLIN, Ind. - After a week of talking politics in the Midwest the one thread connecting voters of all stripe -- independents, Republicans and even many Democrats -- in their assessment of Barack Obama's presidency is the strong belief that lack of experience has marred his first year and led to policies that have deleterious long range implications for the nation.

WASHINGTON - A major concern of most wire service editors in the old days was a bad taste practical joke story that inadvertently found its way into circulation and ended up in dozens of newspapers in too much a rush to verify it. Young reporters were told repeatedly to keep their humor to themselves and away from the filing system at the risk of permanent damage to their careers.

WASHINGTON - As kids during World War II most young American boys fought imaginary battles against the Axis powers right along with the real ones being fought by their brothers, fathers, cousins and those of their friends.

WASHINGTON - With apologies to James Whitcomb Riley: "The word police will git ya if ya don't watch out."

Just ask the chief of staff of the White House, Rahm Emanuel, and the secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who have spent as much time apologizing for perceived serious violations of political correctness than trying to figure out how to make things better in the good old USA.

WASHINGTON - This city is abuzz these days with talk of bipartisanship and the need to meet an increasing public demand for civility in a Congress that seems pretty much dedicated to the opposite. But don't expect that to happen anytime soon or to be lasting if it does, plagued as the nation is with a shortage of statesmen.

NEW ORLEANS - Just when you were naïve enough to believe that Watergate was the death knell for dirty tricks and similar illegal political activity in this country some nitwit who apparently failed to read about it comes along 38 years later to show you just how wrong you were.

WASHINGTON - The signs have been there for several months -- declining overall job approval ratings, polls that show a sharp increase in independent voter unhappiness and strong opposition from so-called Tea Party conservatives.

WASHINGTON - Want to see where Hollywood gets the ideas for all those movies where every other word is an expletive or a racial slur or a combination of both and just post pubescent teen-agers in red or blue bandanas fill the streets with nine millimeter slugs and rivers of blood?

WASHINGTON - History is replete with dumb moves but in recent times few are more so than plans by the nation's top banking officials to hand out almost $146 billion in increased pay and bonuses. What in the world are they thinking? To paraphrase a distinguished lawyer's famous rejoinder to the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, 'Have they no shame?'