Balloonfoot - *'s nickname for Powell

[RamboLiberal]

It's mentioned in the O' Neill book. Incidentally O' Neill got 2 nicknames, Pablo when first selected, and The Big O when he fell out of favor.

Gee, Balloonfoot alone would've sent me packing. But anyone have a clue why Powell has that nickname?

What a freakin Bully Chimpy is!

[CatWoman]

1. I think that name is pretty insulting

really it is......

[Must_B_Free]

19. Does Powell have big feet?

what the hell could "Balloonfoot" be playing on?

We know that "big O" was a play on the "O" in O'neill.

WTF is balloonfoot? walking on air?

[tom_paine]

24. I think it's an slur about him being an African-American

Consider:

People with big feet are supposed to have big members.

As are African-Americans.

My belief is that this is a play off those stereotypes.

[Rex]

2. O' Neill as The Big O

That would make him a huge, ass-kicking robot.

[XNASA]

3. "The Big O"??? My Goodness.....

What must all of the fundies think? Their man w* bestowing a nickname upon the Sec of Tres that drips with sexual innuendo and all.

One second thought, half of the fundies don't know what "The Big O" means, and the other half have never had one.

So that's prolly why they pretend not to care.

[Catfish]

4. I don't know what it means

Balloonfoot? But it sounds insulting. There is something bully like about calling other adults by nicknames, not just close friends but it seems Bush does this to many people. You just know that some of them have private "nicknames" for him.

[CatWoman]

6. Yeah

like:

Idiot-in-Chief
Chimpy McCokespoon
Mindless Wonder
Shit for Brains

[stevedeshazer]

9. Here's my guess

In trucker lexicon, a balloonfoot is a cautious, slower driver (Powell) as compared to a leadfoot (Rummy).i

[Catfish]

12. That makes sense

Bush would ridicule someone for being cautious. I do wonder if Powell will ever speak up, even if it's years from now. He can't like his treatment.

[RamboLiberal]

14. You might have something

We know Powell counseled going slow in a lot of these foreign policy decisions, while Cheney, Bush, Rummy, Wolfie, and the rest of the cabal wanted to charge right in like Leadfoots.

[stevedeshazer]

23. LOL

So who is the leadfoot? I mean THE leadfoot.

Rummy?
Perle?
Wolfowitz?
Kissinger, even?

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. I would have to nickname bush....

Shit for Brains.

[CatWoman]

7. OMG Oz

too weird!!

we posted the same name at the same time :D

[Bonhomme Richard]

15. Great minds think alike!

OZ

[Military Brat]

8. O'Neill said bush's nicknaming everyone is a form of bullying

He's right. Nicknaming people indiscriminately is a way of asserting your sense of superiority over people.

Rove calls bush "turd blossom." Okay, he's half right. My nickname for bush has been, since January 2001, "president Bogus."

My recently anointed nickname for Rove is "Horse-head" because he uses godfather tactics to scare people whom he perceives as "betraying" the cause.

[nostamj]

27. Rove calls bush "turd blossom" - nope

sorry, you got that backwards.

Rove is turdblossom.

bush* is just a turd.

[DemLikr]

10. Shrub is a classic angry dry drunk.

Nearly every "nickname" he bestows has insulting, hostile undertones, which very often aren't even all that "under."

I'm around a lot of 12-step situations ;)...this guy fits every category, and ought to be attending himself.

The worst is the daily pandering and enabling that goes on around him among his staff and in the press.

Gag me.

I'd love to get Georgie in a good all-day 12-step encounter session; it would be entertaining to watch the defenses fall and the rage and guilt emerge.

[DemLikr]

11. So...is it true what they say about men with big feet?

;)

[Stephanie]

16. Yes

n/t

[tom_paine]

13. I'm surprised his "nickname" for Powell isn't something more vulgar

You know, it's that word that many Whites have used to slur African-Americans with since the 1600s. That N-word.

[Stephanie]

17. o/t tom paine, are you the same tom paine of the ads?

Great ad in the NYT op-ed today about Perle. You related to that?

[Dudley_DUright]

18. That NYT ad was killer

I normally don't get the "dead tree" version of the NYTimes, but I needed to go get a tire fixed today so I bought a copy to keep me entertained while I waited. I was forced to listen to FAUX news in the waiting room, but that ad was a great antidote.

[Stephanie]

20. here's the ad

http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad2.cfm/ID/9757

[RamboLiberal]

21. Beautiful - Love it - Great work

Bet Perle is stewing!

[tom_paine]

25. I wish. Unfortunately that is not the case.

I joined DU in mid-2001 and chose my name based on my affection and affinity for Thomas Paine the man, the philosopher, the hothead who yakked himself into being the only Founding Father not to have a monument.

Read about the infamous "Letter to Washington" and the circumstances which caused Paine to mistakenly pen it. It's an iteresting tale.

Anyway, as fate would have it, not 2 weeks later did I stumble onto www.tompaine.com

It's a fantastic publication, but I have nothing to do with it (unfortunately).

[demodewd]

22. the real meaning

It means that he bounces around from place to place but is a real lightweight. :bounce:

[DrBB]

26. Rituals of dominance and submission

...inherited from 60s Frat Boy culture. To confer a name and make it stick--an exercise of power. Petty, yet all the more effective for that. To accept the name is to accept the subservience that goes with it. The names are badges of status--higher or lower status, but membership at least. "Balloonfoot"--obviously derogatory. But to be a member of the team you have to accept it; to reject it is to reject membership. And Colin's a team player. Plus he told himself (I'm sure) that it was nonsense, some game he didn't play; let the Boy King call him whatever he wants, it's really about Important Stuff, leading the Free World 'n' everything.

Only it isn't. It's about tugging the forelock, reading the nicknames (which change and evolve) as marks of favor and disfavor. An abasing ritual for anyone with self respect, but that's the point. To let yourself be put in play like this--and be in the game--or refuse, and be out of it. To be in it means to accept the subtle--or not so subtle--humiliation of being dubbed by Dubya. "Dub ya." Get it? Fraught with personal and political siginificance (the latter: the fact that this family counts itself as aristocrats--related to the Royal Family of Britain--and runs all its operations like a monarchy or mafia crime family--the same thing really).

That's his game. It's childish, petty, perverse, debasing. Dub Ya. That's what he does. Play along, suck up, or be exiled, those are the choices. Accede to this little ritual of submission, that's the first criterion. Surrender a little of your humanity, your dignity. Abase yourself. Then get access to power through ME.

Perverse, trivial, petty, debased, sickening. All of those things, and all the more effective for that very fact.

Hey, didn't none a you guys go to prep school?

[Catfish]

29. Good post

insightful and seems very true to me.

[sal]

28. It is from his Vietnam Purple Heart

Powell got the Purple Heart in 'Nam by stepping on a pungee stick and aquiring a resultant nasty infection.

I think it is *'s way of passive-aggressively reminding Powell that he is just a pumped up choclate soldier faux-hero war-crime enabler just like AWOL.