On May 11, 2010 Sarah Palin appeared at another fundraising event. This time the speech was to benefit Rainbow Omega, a non-profit organization devoted to adults with developmental disabilities. This facility is located about 45 minutes east of Birmingham Alabama. According to Stentson Carpenter, the Board Chairman and CEO of Rainbow Omega, the contract with Palin prohibited him from disclosing the fee paid to Palin, but he did confirm that the amount was agreed upon in advance, and that the fee was in addition to travel expenses. Palin’s usual fee is $100,000. Travel expenses in this case did not include a private plane, but a first class ticket for Ms. Palin and two coach tickets for her security guards. Obviously Grandma Palin was not donating her time, but was receiving financial compensation for this 39 minute speech.
Rainbow Omega is a facility consisting of 8 homes for adults ranging in age from 18 to 85 years old. One of the 8 homes is similar to a nursing home, and the 15 residents in that facility are supported by Medicare at a rate of $200.00 per day, $6000.00 per month, or $72,000 per year per person. Thus just the 15 patients in the nursing facility of Rainbow Omega result in an expense to U.S. taxpayers of approximately $1,080,000.00 per year. Many of the other 65 residents rely upon federal support through Social Security benefits to their parents. Thirty of these special needs residents receive $50.00 per day for 5 days per week through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services CMHS (Center for Mental Health Services) for a benefit known as “supportive employment”. This translates into a benefit for the 30 residents of approximately $390,000 per year, in addition to any other support they receive from federal programs.
Palin has said, “Let’s take personal responsibility in all areas of life, including health”. It seems that the “personal responsibility” Palin took at Rainbow Omega was to ensure that she got paid. If asked, Sarah Palin would probably tell us that it was part of “God’s plan” that she would have a Down’s syndrome child, so that not-for-profit organizations like Rainbow Omega would be more inclined to hire her. It must have been “God’s plan” to ensure that she would make more than $12,000,000.00 in one year, regardless of who pays the bills.
malialitman
MaliaLitman.com 
Oh, for crying out loud!! She goes to a place helping people with special needs, and she couldn’t do this with just getting her travel expenses paid for??? She has supposedly earned $12 million bucks, so one would think that maybe she could have donated it to this place. I guess greed just begets greed.
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Oh, for crying out loud!! She goes to a place helping people with special needs, and she couldn’t do this with just getting her travel expenses paid for??? She has supposedly earned $12 million bucks, so one would think that maybe she could have donated her speaking fee to this place. I guess that greed begets greed.
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Both parties appear to be happy with the arrangement, so I guess they’re getting what they paid for.
What offends me is the clause that prohibits them from disclosing Palin’s fee. If you’re that ashamed of your actions, perhaps your conscience (not your God) is trying to tell you something.
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Might be she is researching facilities to place Trig. A laudable project , and if you can make them pay through the nose, why that’s killing 2 birds with one stone. (I think that is one of her refrigerater magnet sayings.)
I love how she knows exactlyl what is going through Tracks head when he wakes up in the morning.( I read her thoughts on his thoughts on arising somewhere and gagged.) A mind reader at a distance as well as Gods favored one.
Perhpas she is telepathic too?
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lilly, Maybe we can add that to the career counseling avice for 2013? Malia
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So does she mean that the developmentally disabled adults who are receiving help from Medicare and Social Security for their care should take personal responsibility for their care? Or their families should pay the $72,000 per person per year? Maybe she plans to donate her speaking fee to help set up an endowment for these adults so they do not have to depend on the government for help. Somehow I do not see that happening.
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Irene, And I am sure that if her purpose was so noble ,…we would have heard about it by now. Malia
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Malia, as you know I live in AL. I could not be in Birmingham last night but I have been emailing the organizer of this event (Andrea Wilson awilson@rainbowomega.org) and I had done some exploring on Rainbow Omega’s website yesterday. I am so pissed about this “fundraiser” for them having Sarah Palin do her political campaign rally speech. I listened to about 10 second of it. That is all I could stand. First two lines: “HELLO ALABAMA” she practically screams. “DO YOU LOVE YOUR FREEDOM?” That second line has nothing to do with being compassionate and concerned about special needs persons! Nada.
Anyway, (oh my blood is boiling) one of the consultants on the Board of Rainbow Omega is Gene Stallings, former head coach of University of Alabama football team, and former coach at Texas A&M. Of course, he is back in Texas now and is an appointee (to some committees, etc.) of Rick Perry. He also has a son with DS. So it is no coincidence that SP was their speaker. And I am sure her fee was guaranteed. I think I read a statement that she saw this organization’s material and thought it was worth supporting or something like that. BS.
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yeah, she thought it was supporting as long as they would pay her fee. Malia
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In so many readers comments’ section after articles about Palin, her ‘bots talk about how she donates her speaking fees. I’ve yet to see this anywhere in writing, except when it came to the Tea Party Convention and she said the money she was paid would go right back to supporting tea party candidates. We won’t know if that is even somewhat true until we see her quarterly and yearly reporting for the PAC but the last quarter report showed nothing of the sort. Where do they get these lies? She is nothing if not greedy. I can’t imagine having a child with DS and having the ability to help raise money yet charging them to do so. What a servants’ heart that one has. You betcha! She’s serving herself and herself only.
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AKRNC, I think all of her speaking fees are paid to her personally, so we may never havethe documents to prove the theory, but I bet we would have heard a lot about if in the event anything had been donated. Malia
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Even if financial backers of this organization paid for her travel fees (and her speaker’s fee if she charged it), it is shameful. She could have graciously asked that the fees incurred be donated instead to the organization instead.
By the way, why does she have to travel First Class? She is a small woman. She does not need the extra leg room nor does she have a physical disability that would require more room. This woman is a diva pure and simple.
I agree with AKRNC, Sarah Palin does not have a servant’s heart. I bet she doesn’t even have a clue what that means.
Maybe the exorcism performed in her “home” church backfired and an evil spirit came to her instead of being expelled.
Of course, one does have ask, why anyone think she needed that special ceremony in the first place – did someone think she wasn’t up to snuff to begin with and was hopeful all her negativity would be nullified. If so, it did not work.
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ks sunflower–part of your comment really got my attention–about the exorcism backfiring. I have heard that before from an author and teacher that I trust.
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Having watched a bit of her ‘speech’, it occurs to me that, if Rosanne Barr gave the same speech, not only would it sound the same, but I would assume she was falling-down drunk or stoned out of her mind.
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I tried listening to Sarah’s speech, but as usual I cannot stand her voice. She has such a high-pitched nasal whiny voice that it is difficult to listen to, but I did listen to a few snippets just to get a feel of how she came across. The first thing I noticed is Sarah sounded insincere, she looked nervous and too fidgety, too rehearsed and unprepared. I’d be real interested in hearing what some of the audience had to say.
According to Gryphen, Sarah railed against Obamacare telling her audience that special needs healthcare services will be much more difficult to get now. And used the old tired worn-out carnard, “government is the problem.” Her suggestion: faith-based organizations, not government — for heavens sake she was speaking at a “nonpartisan” fundraiser. Although I didn’t quite catch all of it I believe Sarah also said something to the effect that people who are fortunate enough could also be a source of funding for special needs children — yeah this comes from the same woman who made around $12 million and donated a whopping $1000.00 of it to charities last year.
While possible, I just have a difficult time believing Sarah has worked with her sister, Heather, on autism issues for over a decade — unless having a nephew with autism qualifies. I would like to give Sarah the benefit of the doubt, but inasmuch as she is prone to making things up she has lost that privilege.
Sarah was given such a unique opportunity to use her charisma and charm to do things that are worthwhile and honourable. But because her own ego, arrogance and greed got in the way, she chose not to. Instead scaring vulnerable people while taking their money is more to her liking.
One day Sarah will be relegated to the dustbin of history, discredited and alone by her own design. That day, insofar as Iam concerned, cannot come fast enough.
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The hypocrisy in Scarah’s speech is stunningly ridiculous. She screeches against Obamacare and against government-supported programs, yet Rainbow House and the people it supports would be out on the streets without government help. Obviously, she never bothered to research this organization, and her suggestion that faith-based organizations would take care of DS patients is sadly unrealistic. I get really tired of conservatives AND libertarians telling me that charity is the way to provide health care and support to the those who cannot work or who have severe disabilities. It won’t happen, period.
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DLBinPDX, I know you are exactly right and it is amazing to me that she continues to do this! Malia
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Can I just say, that I would rather be beholden to a faceless bureaucratic government run program than be at the mercy of one that is run by catty, judgmental and arbitrarily administered faith-based initiatives with the likes of Sarah Palin?
If we lived in Sarah’s America, we’d all be 19 year old single mother’s working 20 hours a day, walking in the snow to and from work and bathing our babies (and purportedly hers) in sinks at 4 a.m.
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icvillages, Thank God we are not living in her world. Malia
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Again, nice to know how Christian-impaired our ex gov is . Thanks.
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And no, this is the 1st time I’ve said this. Again, nice to know how Christian-impaired our ex gov is . Thanks.
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Dawn, Christian-impaired is a great term! Thanks, Malia
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While she claims that the special needs community has an advocate with her, she seems to be a willing advocate as long as she is paid to be there, while she donates her time to both the NRA (she is not being paid for that speech) and for Anti-Abortion (she is giving a speech for the Susan B. Anthony group tomorrow and has waived her fee for them as well).
I’d suggest that the special needs community look elsewhere for an advocate, one who isn’t looking to line her own pockets at their expense.
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EyeOn You, I agree totally! She could do so much to help raise awareness and money for the special needs community, but she seems to do that only when she perceives she has something to gain. Malia
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Good reporting on this self-loathing hypocrite.
mooseyak is well aware that her talk is her own death panel to her dummy base.
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Game of Life, It was just amazing to me that she would suggest that she was an advocate for special needs kids/adults, and then charge them for her time and travel. malia
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