Not surprisingly, KT is about 90% non-hispanic white.

@1 KY, actually, and I'm willing to bet that figure's changed since the 2000 census.

But speaking as a Kentucky expatriate, I can tell you that not enough of the electorate is racially aware to get actual black politicians elected to national office, so I wouldn't count on this hurting Paul's chances too much. I suppose we can hope. And donate to Conway.

The statements Paul made were shibboleths for the both the racist tea-baggers and libertarian country club set. I find it hilarious that his dog-whistle tactic malfunctioned in such a spectacular way.

@1 KY, actually. And I wouldn't be too surprised if this year's census shows a change in that number (mostly due to immigration).

But speaking as a Kentucky expatriate, I can tell you that not enough of the electorate is racially aware to actually get black politicians elected to national office, so I wouldn't count on this to derail Paul. We can hope, I suppose. And donate to Conway.

A 2008 update to census numbers says that 7.5 percent of the total population in Kentucky is black/African American. But, according to the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights (via RaceWire, one in four black men in Kentucky can't vote—it's one of two states that bar people with past felony convictions from voting for their entire lives. How convenient. Also, "As of 2004, more African-American men were disenfranchised [due to laws like Kentucky's] than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race."

KY! That's a great abbreviation!

@6 Yes, which is probably why Dan spelled out "Kentucky" in the title for this post. Imagine the disappointment of people who would have shown up hoping that "KY Electorate" was a hot new political lube.

I have a feeling that come 2011, when the "landslide" republicans take their seats, they're going to have a hard time getting anything done, if they're as naive about how they speak their mind as Rand Paul obviously is. Sure, polls matter. But so does back-hallway-know-how, and on that count, the South and the Midwest eating their incumbents?

Yay for the Dems.

I take Paul at his word that he's not a racist. What is interesting about him is that he appears willing to take his ideological positions to their logical conclusions. He is so categorically opposed to public regulation of private enterprise that he cannot even bring himself to say that the Woolworth lunch counter should've been desegregated. Instead, he falls back on the remedies of the market: "I wouldn't attend, wouldn't support, wouldn't go to," a private institution that discriminates. But he would let them discriminate.

@9 it would, in a way, be more respectable if what you said is true. If he were a pure libertarian with consistent views about no federal intervention he'd have some sort of debatable case but...

- He thinks that marijuana should be illegal and wants to continue the drug war.
- He's all in favor of Medicare and doesn't even want to control medical reimburstments. He's a doctor, and has admitted that about 50% of his business is Medicare
- He favors coal subsidies (Kentucky has coal).
- He supports a CONSTITUTIONAL AMMENDMENT to bad abortion.

So apparently he thinks "No dogs or negroes" signs would be a tragic price, but an admissable one, for the sake of libertarian freedom. Women's reproductive organs however, are wholly owned by the federal government. Yeah, nice consistency.

Argg, I fucked that up badly. I'm sorry, he opposes abortion but he wants a constitutional ammendment banning gay marriage. Same hypocrisy, different flavors, my mistake.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that he can be a non-racist and think racists ought to be able to hold racist views if they want to?

There are problems with the soda fountain situation (yes, it's a private business, but it's open to the public), but the principle is pretty sound.

As a Kentuckian with views more progressive than many in the state, Rand Paul is yet another figure in Kentucky politics who makes me very sad.

While, sadly, his comments on civil rights may not be enough to completely destroy his appeal to some of my fellow Kentucky voters, some of his comments today may. Whilst going after Obama for criticizing BP about the fountain of oil brightening up the Gulf, he decided to drag coal mining into he mix. Referencing the BP spill and a fatal coal-mining accident, he said criticized those who wish to blame businesses for such events, saying "Maybe sometimes accidents happen..."

He could almost have a valid point about our tendency to be obsessed with the "blame-game," as he calls it, but he's picked two of the worst possible examples. It kind of seems that he's only obsessed with the rights of businesses (the racist, oil-spilling, people-killing ones) that the rest of society abhors.

If he wins in November, I will be so, so, so sad. I haven't endured over a decade of the combined forces of Bunning and McConnell for this to be the result!

@5: Here's a thought: Maybe the real issue is more than 1 in 4 Kentucky blacks committing felonies!

@15: I think a better interpretation, if the stat is accurate, is more than 1 in 4 Kentucky black people being convicted of felonies. And I wonder what crimes Kentucky has called "felony." And I wonder what the percentage of white people is who are committing, being charged, or being convicted of felonies.

Also, I kinda disgusts me that no one is bothering to check context on the "KKK hoodie" post - he wasn't wearing a pro-Klan hoodie, he was wearing a death metal band (Napalm Death) hoodie that included a number of figures of violence and evil, including a skeleton in Klan robes. The same band re-recorded Nazi Punks Fuck Off and gave the proceeds to anti-fascist organizations. He may still be a racist fuck, I don't know, but slamming someone as a Klan supporter for being amused at idiots misinterpreting his shirt is pretty low.

@16: Broadly speaking, in pretty much any category, more people commit crimes and escape justice than are wrongly convicted. And yeah, there probably are prosecution rate disparities. But I have little sympathy for a felon who whines that other felons caught a better break. The only exception is certain drug crimes, but I'm betting those don't make up the bulk of the 1 in 4.

@10, OK, maybe I shouldn't have naively assumed that Dr. Paul would be as libertarian on other policy issues as he makes himself out to be on the issue of the Civil Rights Act. Though in the time since his interview with Rachel Maddow, he's certainly sprinted away from that "principled" stand.

@13, did you miss how I prefaced my initial comment on this thread, somehow?