When my book Injustice launched last October, I was attacked for describing the radical policy of Eric Holder’s Civil Rights Division as it relates to Kindles with talk features. The DOJ flexed its muscle and prevented the launch of the new Kindle because it did not have a button in Braille to make it talk. You can read all the details of the absurd radical program in my book Injustice (which I am shamelessly compelled to mention hit the New York Times bestseller list).
Naturally, the left went crazy – which is always a good sign you’ve hit a nerve. If they don’t feel pain, they don’t yell.
Eric Holder is at it again, pushing a radical disability policy. (No, this one does not involve recruiting the mentally ill to work as lawyers at DOJ. That was last week’s radical disability policy.) This week, Eric Holder is stopping libraries from making available Kindles that don’t have Braille push-to-talk buttons.
The U.S. Justice Department says it has reached a settlement with the Sacramento (California) Public Library over a trial program the library was conducting that let patrons borrow Barnes and Noble NOOK e-book readers.
DOJ and the National Federation of the Blind objected to the program on grounds that blind people could not use the NOOK e-readers for technological reasons.
The Justice Department said the settlement is aimed at stopping discrimination: “Emerging technologies like e-readers are changing the way we interact with the world around us and we need to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from the programs where these devices are used,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez in a news release.
The name Tom Perez will be familiar to PJ Media readers. He is the truth-challenged head of the infamous Civil Rights Division. Let’s get this straight – DOJ threatened to sue a library because they gave out e-readers. Because the versions of these e-readers don’t have an easy push to talk feature, DOJ threatened to sue under the Americans With Disabilities Act. To get the machines to talk, it takes more than a one-push button. And therein lies the DOJ complaint. Never mind the alternative is a paper book. An e-reader isn’t good enough to people out to change the world, and federal muscle followed.
Most sane Americans recognize advancements like the Kindle or Nook as amazing achievements. When they hear about this absurd DOJ policy, laughter follows. To regular common sense Americans, the federal government suing to stop a library from giving away a Kindle is a whiff shy of crazy. But to bureaucrats at the DOJ and their radicalized political overseers, the Kindle, as constituted, represents discrimination against the disabled.
When you are done laughing, consider that they don’t think it is funny. In fact, if you scrutinize DOJ policies, they will call you mean and cruel, sort of like the reflexive branding as racists that their ideological comrades have employed recently.
Consider Sam Bangenstos. He used to be a political appointee under Perez and is probably the architect of some of the nuttier policies of this administration. He naturally finds a home in academia where he opines about disability policy. When I reported a straight factual recitation of their policy here at PJ Tatler, Bagenstos huffed on Twitter my reporting on these facts was “hateful and ignorant.” Never mind the story had not a word of opinion. It was all facts, facts that harm his cause if widely known.
Sam Bagenstos
Bagenstos is the same person who was once ridiculed by a federal court for producing amateur work. As Hans von Spakovksy wrote at National Review, Bagenstos is responsible for this laugher:
Bagenstos recently appeared in federal court in New York, arguing against a motion to dismiss one of the Division’s lawsuits. The Division’s complaint was so badly written under Bagenstos’s supervision that the judge at one point compared the government’s pleading to that of a pro se litigant, which is as close as a federal judge can come to calling you incompetent.
But none of this criticism matters to these folks because they live in a bubble. If you write about this absurd Kindle settlement, they tut-tut at you. If you laugh at these absurd policies, then they turn surly. Such are the luxuries of academia. But in most parts of the nation, these radical policies have crippled businesses. That’s why in a few short months, many more of those “who can’t” will be looking for jobs with Bagenstos in the ivory tower. Even if they write like a pro se litigant, nothing will slow them down.
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