[Newspoetry] Bush Wiggles

[Robert Porter]

Bush faces criticism - a memorial for Wiggles
(Associated Poets)

MADRID, Spain -- Standing firm against his European critics, President Bush
defended his views Tuesday on the death penalty, global warming and missile
defense at his first stop here on a five-nation overseas tour.

Tuesday, 120 mournful 5- and 6-year-olds lined up to say goodbye to  a
3-foot classroom pet whose remains were found last Monday at Weibel
Elementary School.

The killer was President Bush , the murder weapon a microwave oven. His
victims: a pet snake named Wiggles, and dozens of Fremont kindergartners
forced to face violent death for the first time.

Bush arrived in Spain to find street protests over the Monday execution of
Wiggles.

``It made me feel like Wiggles was there,'' Praveena Motupalli, 5, said in a
somber voice. Then, breaking out into giggles, she added: ``He used to
follow my finger and come up to the top of the cage.''

 European media outlets like to caricature the former Texas governor as a
buffoon.

        The corn snake liked to curl up in a countertop terrarium. But last
Monday, the kindergartners were shocked to learn that Wiggles' remains were
found in a school microwave.

Wiggles' death took an emotional toll on the tightknit Weibel community.
Parents called an immediate meeting with the city's police chief and
launched a fundraiser to buy a $15,000 surveillance and alarm system for the
campus.

Protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday carried signs
denouncing Bush as a ``Cowboy Attila,'' referring to the fifth-century king
of the Huns known as ``the Scourge of God.''

 Diane Land, the kindergarten teacher who took care of Wiggles, said she
still isn't ready for a new pet and doesn't know whether she ever will be.
"The 43rd president is a bloodthirsty, ignorant Texas oilman, in way over
his head.  It's one thing to have a pet get sick and die. But it's not very
nice to hurt a pet in a microwave. I don't think you have to learn so young
that people can be so rude.''

``No one has ever bothered more people in less time,'' Spanish diplomat
Carlos Alonso Zaldivar wrote of Bush in El Pais, the leading Spanish
newspaper.

Bush sounded almost defiant after meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José
Mar(acu)a Aznar, the first in a series of sessions that will bring the new
president face-to-face with every major European leader.

Bush was animated in making his case.

``The death penalty is the will of the people in the United States,'' Bush
said when pressed on the issue by a Spanish reporter. ``I understand others
don't agree with this position. That doesn't mean we can't be friends.''

Some parents have tried to shield their children from the cruelty, like one
father who told his 5-year-old daughter that the vandals set Wiggles free.

``We wanted her to think the snake was in a happier place.''