Over 30000 ironically minded Americans, assumed to be readers of The Onion, have signed a petition to build a 'Death Star'.
The petition states that the Death Star project would create employment and extend the skills base of the population from semi-literate shelf-stacker at Walmart to highly qualified Space-Welder and give the stagnating economy a much-needed impetus.
Any petition with over 25000 signatories automatically triggers a response by the White House, and staffers wanting to show off their own comedy credentials have been falling over themselves to draft a suitably funny answer.
Replies suggested on the official White House FB page read:
'Get out more!'
'No, you are NOT a Jedi, get a life!'
'Your MUM'
'No, emperor, no, please ... Argghhh...'
'We have started building it you idiots! Where do you think the trillions in bank bailouts really went? '
Pentagon insiders confirm that the last statement was too close to the actual truth and removed by NASA and the CIA in the 'Interests of National Security', but it can still be viewed at Web Archiving Sites, where the page was cached.
The official White House reply was:
'We are rejecting the petition to build a Death Star as the administration does not support blowing up planets. We prefer targeting oil rich regions or really poor and remote places here on earth'.
