Yes we can! Democrats log on to Craigslist...

Here's some ammunition for the family values wing of the Republican Party. According to a Cnet News.com investigation, adverts seeking casual sex posted to Craigslist Denver soared in the past week while, you guessed it, Democratic Party faithful converged on the Mile-High City.

News.com's Declan McCullagh reports that "on average, 425 posts on Craiglist's 'Casual Encounters' area appeared throughout the first three Sundays in August. But this Sunday, when tens of thousands of people had arrived for the convention, 763 posts appeared -- an 80 per cent increase." To illustrate the spike, News.com posts a chart showing "Casual Encounters" adverts remaining more or less stable in the previous weeks, but rocketing up as of Sunday.

It would be unfair to say all of the rise is due to amorous out-of-towners from the Democratic Party (or indeed the legion of journalists who followed them into town.) Still, as News.com points out, there are some adverts that carry phrases you'd only hear at the DNC, or perhaps in Washington DC during the Clinton years. They include: "Looking to service a young Democrat" or "Here 4 DNC? Come get sexual with me."

In the interests of balance, Mousetrap also looked at the Casual Encounters listings for St Paul/Minneapolis, the site of next week's Republican National Convention. The findings? An even bigger spike. In the past seven days, the "W4M" adverts (for the unitiated, that's "woman for man") posted to Craigslist St Paul/Minneapolis jumped from 390 to 914 week-on-week. We did not find any specific references to the RNC (perhaps it's too early, perhaps Republicans are more discreet -- insert your theory here), but there were Nascar fans and boating enthusiasts looking for a chance fling, and somebody who just wants to "kill time before the flight leaves town".

On second thoughts, perhaps the Republicans should keep this information under their hat.