Can the wifi connection dialog be fooled?

[TheLazy1]

It appears to only connect if it can find a connection to the internet.
What I had hoped to do was try and get the kindle to connect to an access point without an internet connection.
That access point would hopefully be set up to redirect all requests to an http proxy running on my phone and granting me wireless access on my wifi-only kindle.

Is there any way of fooling it into thinking it's actually connected to the internet?
All it does now is tell me it cannot connect, even with no security.