Att. Karl Rove; free love winning 2004 Bush campaign plan

BumbleBeeBoogie's Bush campaign strategy to Karl Rove: Listen up, Karl. Forget about foreign policy, the economy, and all of the other boring issues. Think FREE LOVE! Bush will get the votes of all those horny harmone-driving males and females. Even Bill Bennett can't stop them from voting for Bush in 2004.

Madrid dispatch - The Guardian UK - 5/13/03
Ticket to ride

A Green party proposal for vouchers to help young Spaniards lose their virginity in private has caused outrage, reports Giles Tremlett

A Spanish tradition is under threat and conservative members of the community are angry. Nothing new there, except that the tradition is something the same people usually disapprove of - the time-honoured practise, for those living with their parents, of having their first sexual encounters in the backs of cars, on the beach or in a secluded patch of countryside.
A radical new proposal from the Green party in the southern city of Granada would see the introduction of a controversial new youth sex voucher, the so-called "bonosex", to give amorous young couples aged 25 or under a 50% discount in the city's hotels.

The vouchers would allow young people to initiate their sex lives in "dignified" surroundings, rather than in the cramped, uncomfortable and clandestine places they were normally forced to use, according to a party spokesman.

Although the proposal has been greeted with a mixture of incredulity and outrage, the Green party candidate for mayor at the May 25 elections, Francisco Garrido, insisted he was serious about the vouchers.

"Happiness, well-being and autonomy are very important," he explained. "It's about emotional democracy."

With most young people unable to move out of their parents' homes due to the cost of local housing and the difficulty of finding a job, many couples were obliged to find somewhere else to give free reign to their sexual impulses, Mr Garrido said.

This encouraged a casual attitude to sex which meant many did not bother with contraception and unwanted pregnancies were common, he said.

Reactions to his proposals have varied from the "banal hysteria and repressive laughter of the politically correct" to "the religious and rightwing zealots who have already started threatening us," according to Mr Garrido.

One of his neighbours, a member of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei Roman Catholic group, has promised Mr Garrido that his proposals will "land him in hell".

It is not, however, the first time that Spanish politicians have proposed acting to improve the sex lives of young voters.

Antonio Fernandez, director general of youth affairs in the western region of Extremadura, recently suggested similar measures. "It is up to the authorities to prepare places where young people can maintain sexual relations," he claimed.

The seaside town of Velez-Malaga recently considered turning off the lights on the city's seafront promenade for an hour every night so amorous couples could carry on the local tradition of frolicking on the town beach.

Socialist town councillor Antonio Lopez argued that the beach was the best place for young people to "release their sexual desires" and called for police to suspend their beach patrols during that hour.

"It has always been traditional for young people to use the dark and the low tide for a roll in the sand," he explained. "Those who want to use the beach for activities other than swimming might find the lights offensive and try smashing them with stones."

Although Mr Lopez's proposals failed to win approval from his fellow councillors, his town has, at least, not resorted to the night-time beach sex patrols brought in by less tolerant councils.

The politicians may seem daring but they have, at least, spotted a problem. Young Spaniards are spending longer and longer living at home. Most do not leave until their late 20s and many are still there on their 30th birthdays.

Although this means they get their laundry done, their shirts ironed and can eat mama's home cooking every day, it leaves them without anywhere private to enjoy sex.

Small, cramped family flats and traditional, non-consenting parents make home the last place many would think of taking their partner.

A survey carried out by government-funded investigators at the Centre for Sociological Research found that only 40% of Spaniards aged between 18 and 24 had lost their virginity in a bed.

One in four had had their first sexual experience in a car, while one in eight had favoured the outdoors. A surprising 10% had managed to lose their virginity in a discotheque or night club, while one in fifty claimed it happened in a cinema. A handful of those interviewed said they had resorted to a room at work.

And, with the Greens unlikely to win Granada city hall on May 25, that is how it will remain for the foreseeable future.