MISSISSIPPI: OF PUPPY MILLS AND BABY MILLS–IF YOU CAN STOMACH IT!

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News out of New Albany, Mississippi: The death of 2-year old Guatemalan adoptee Enna Barreto has been ruled a homicide by the Shelby County medical examiner. Her adoptive parents, Janet and Ramone Barreto , have been charged with two counts of negligence, but more serious charges are pending. According to news reports, Enna died in a Memphis hospital from blunt force trauma to the head. She is one of seven children, most from Guatemala, “adopted” by the Barretos. Two others are Janet Barreto’s biological children. The eight surviving children, ages 3-17, are in the temporary custody of the Department of Human Services. They reportedly show no signs of harm, but accusations of sexual abuse are being investigated. The couple is scheduled for arraignment next week. But this isn’t the whole story. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are investigating just how the children got to the US. Officials say that paperwork on five of the adoptions is missing. Neither of the Barretos is employed. They rent out trailers they own throughout the county and they sell puppies… But this isn’t the whole story. The Barretos sell lots of puppies–as in Internet puppy mill puppies–as in Barreto’s Luv-a-Puppy. Sheriff Tommy Wilhite says Continue Reading →

CALLING ALL BASTARDS AND FRIENDS….

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A DAY FOR ADOPTEE RIGHTS is major adoptee rights/Bastard Nation event. Join us in New Orleans as we make history ushering in a new era of adoptee rights victories. Help us restore the right of all US and Canadian adoptees to their identity and birth records We still have plenty of hotel rooms in New Orleans for the July 20-22 Day for Adoptee Rights Protest and Teach-in during the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting. ACCOMMODATIONS Make your hotel reservations now. Reservation information for the Country Inn Suites by Carlson is here and on our left sidebar. When you make your reservations be sure to contact Marla Paul at [email protected] Marla is BN’s liason with the hotel and is keeping track of reservations. We need to close our block of rooms in 2 weeks, so make your reservation now! GOT YOUR DAY FOR ADOPTEE RIGHTS BADGE YET?Go here for your blogger/webpage badge and other promotional materials. WE STILL NEED VOLUNTEERS!Security, clean-up and more!Contact us at [email protected] if you’d like to help AND WE DEFINITELY NEED MONEY! We’ve got the park. We’ve got the conference space. We’ve got the hotel.Costs are mounting. Things like porta-potties, police, permits, program advertising, conference Continue Reading →

STOP THE INSANITIY: SOME WEEKEND READING

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Feeling mad as hell and you won’t take it anymore? If not, you will after this! 73ADOPTEE WAITS FOR GODOT!RUN, DON”T WALK to Case Closed, Another Adoptee Becomes a Confidential Intermediary Statistic— 73adoptee’s memoir of her eight-year jack-around by the Midwest Adoption Center, aka, the Illinois Confidential Intermediary. You know, the CI program that Melisha Mitchell and Sara Feigenholtz expect Illinois adoptees to roll over and be grateful to them for. From what 73adoptee writes, it sounds like MAC operators Nancy Golden and Gretchen Schulert, have been possessed by the shade of the late Samuel Beckett. That can be the only explanation! After you read her account, go over to Guidestar (registration required) and check out how much the Nancy and Gretchen Show bilk bastards, their families, and Illinois taxpayers for each year–all with the blessing of the legislature. Just pour yourself a double Jack Daniels, type in “Midwest Adoption Center,”and read their 990s. While you’re at it, check out the Mitchell Mafia at the White Oak Foundation. After that little visit, there should be no doubt, even for the most sunny dispositioned adoptee, that that HB 4623 is about money. (see tag sidebar for numerous HB 4623 entries) 73adoptees’s Continue Reading →

MINNESOTA: NINETY YEARS OF MEDDLING IS MORE THAN ENOUGH…

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Today’s St. Paul Pioneer Press has a good commentary on Gov. Pawletty’s right-decision- for-the-wrong-reasons, veto of the greatly compromised obc access bill. Written by St. Paul Attorney and adad Jim Hamilton, it discusses the absurdity of adoptee identity confiscation in Minnesota: Here’s part of it: Fortunately, my son was born in a country that does not seal original birth certificates. He already has a certified copy of his. He knows his origins. But thousands of others adopted in Minnesota since 1917 (and their descendants) will never know theirs, so long as Minnesota continues to meddle in their private lives. Ninety-one years of such meddling is more than enough. Perhaps our next Legislature and our next governor will recognize that the state has no legitimate role to play in this area of our lives. Perhaps they will recognize that adult adoptees are indeed adults, not the children they once were. But they’ll need to hear from us to do so.

THE CALIFORNIA LESSON: WHY SAFE HAVEN PROPONENTS OPPOSE SAFE HAVEN EXPANSION TIMES

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I thought readers might be interested to know why proponents California’s “safe surrender” law oppose the expansion of time in which a “desperate parent” can drop off a baby from 3 to 7 days (or beyond). It’s probably too much to hope for, but perhaps some of California’s foremost safe haven boosters see where this is going, and don’t want any part of it–like Nebraska’s new law which permits anyone to anonymously drop off a child of any age. Inquiring minds want to know where kitchen table “safe haven” organizations stand on the California and Ohio expansion bills, and certainly what the National Safe Haven Alliance and NCFA thinks about them–if anything. I’ve found no commentary from pushers on expansion. Below is a revised copy of “The California Lesson” which I attached to my May 13 opposition testimony before the Ohio Senate Health, Human Resources, and Aging Committee. (see Bastardette, May 16). which gives extensive quotes from The Opposition Party. THE CALIFORNIA LESSON California’s Safely Surrendered Baby Act is very similar to Ohio’s Deserted Infant Act. It includes a 72-hour limit on the age that babies can be abandoned legally. In 2006 and 2007, legislators in California attempted to expand Continue Reading →

MINNESOTA DEFORM MEASURE GOES DOWN

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Recently, Minnesota Senate File 3193 passed the legislature. It would have opened original birth certificates to all adoptees unless a disclosure affidavit (veto) is on file. Currently anyone adopted before 1977 is blacklisted. Anyone born after that date has access unless a birth parent has filed a veto–a very active veto. In Minnesota, you see, whenever an adoptee requests their original birth certificate, the state (or its contractor) hunts down natural parents to see if they consent or object to their bastard’s request. If they object, or if the state’s super sleuths can’t track them down–then their poor bastard gets nothing, unless he or she….goes to court for a “review.” The veto remained in 3193. Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bill. Of course, Bastardette is happy that he did. But not for the same reasons. Pawlenty isn’t happy when the state breaks promises to desperate and hiding middle aged natural parents. Bastardette doesn’t like it when the state forges government documents about her friends. Pawlety’s veto message is in pdf form, and I’m not sure if this will get you there, but try it: Ch.%20330%20Veto%20Message.pdf Here’s what Pawlenty (or NCFA) wrote: This bill would erase the long-standing presumption of confidentiality Continue Reading →

OHIO: STATE SECRETS PROTECT DEADBEAT DUMPERS

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On May 13, Erik Smith and I testified before the Ohio Senate Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee in opposition of SB 304 which will expand the time “desperate parents” can legally dump their baby from three days to thirty. This was the fifth hearing. I’ve been unable to attend the others, but I wanted to get a few words in before the inevitable happened. Ohio isn’t exactly adoptee friendly. (see blog below) Oddly, I was told that no one had presented oral testimony either for or against the bill, though the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services and Ohio Right to Life (who else!) supported it. After our testimony on Wednesday, Greg Kapcar, Assistant Leg Director for the Public Children’s Services Association of Ohio gave proponent testimony. (Jim McCafferty, director of Cuyahoga County CS who loves safe havens, is on PCSAO’s board). Kapcar was especially excited about an amendment added at Wednesday’s hearing to authorize baby dumping promotion, though when asked what kind of promotion was planned he didn’t know–exactly. Prompted by my earlier testimony that there was no evidence that babies 72 hours or older were being abandoned or killed in the state (which falls right in Continue Reading →

OHIO: BAD NEWS FOR BUCKEYES

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Ohio adoptees and their families got a double kick in the teeth this week. On Wednesday Sub HB 7 was voted out of the Health Committee and on to the House floor without the restoration of access language from the original bill. The ringleaders of this abomination got a real cheap thrill out of pulling the carrot away and then beating the bastards with the stick. Committee members received hundreds of emails and phone calls asking them to restore the language. What does it take to be worthy in Ohio? While this was going on down in the tunnels, the Senate Health, Human Services, and Aging Commitee was sharpening its claws on us by approving SB 304–a safe haven expansion bill that will permit “desperate parents” to dump their up-to-30-day-old problem child on the state. Up from the current 3 day limit. Erik Smith and I testified against the bill. Later tonight I’ll be posting some of my testimony and some comments. If it saves just one…. Don’t mourn! Organize! Throw the bums out!

DENNY GLAD: ANOTHER LIGHT GOES OUT

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We lost one another of our shining lights Monday with the passing of Tennessee rights activist Denny Glad. Denny reunited hundreds of Georgia Tann’s victims and knew the rot of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society inside out. Trained as an historian, Denny brought the historian’s passion to her work. You can read about her marvelous energy and activities in Barbara Bisantz Raymond’s expose of Georgia Tann, The Baby Thief. In the 1990s, Denny was one of the key people in the passage of Tennessee’s semi-records access law which led to Doe v Sundquist. While we disagree with the contact and veto provisions of the law, and I believe Denny did, too, the court decisions that came out of it have become an important marker for us. The lawsuit broke the back of NCFA bullyhood. (Oregon was the coup de grace.) I met Denny only once–at the infamous March 2001 baby dump conference-that-never-was at the University of Memphis (see “Quick exit following opening remarks at symposium on unwanted babies”–Tennessee Commercial Appeal, paid archives, March 25, 2001) but we occasionally emailed and talked on the phone. She was a walking talking history book. Today’s Commercial Appeal published a lovely article about Denny. Continue Reading →