Death Star Petition Gets White House Rebuff

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Huffington Post

The White House responded Friday night to a petition on its website urging construction of a Death Star for job creation and national defense purposes by 2016.

Here's why, according to Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch of the Office of Management and Budget, who wrote an epic response to the petition and its nearly 35,000 signatories:

- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/death-star-petition_n_2460265.html

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You just know they had fun composing that one.

full text of response posted here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251274872

[rightsideout]

1. I love that last reason

Obviously, someone at the WH is a Star Wars fan.

Personally, i'm for Moon and Mars bases. When I worked at NASA as a Technical Illustrator, I drew alot of conceptual Moon and Mars bases for various proposals. Really cool stuff. A moon or mars base would be cheaper than a death star. We need to expand on space exploration. The technology that's created has benefits here on earth.

[DainBramaged]

2. HOLY SHIZNETS

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Cost estimate is probably too low

Another estimate put it at $15.6 septillion.
http://gizmodo.com/5146010/death-star-costs-156-septillion-14-trillion-times-the-us-debt

If I didn't lose a decimal place or two, that's over 18 million times higher, but these kind of cost over-runs are pretty common in the DoD.

If we built it, what would we call the "Death Star:?:
http://thoughtcrimewave.blogspot.com/search?q=death+star

[ellenfl]

4. that's obvious . . . 'obamadeath'. eom

[Jim Lane]

7. That's actually the cost estimate just for buying the steel

The steel needed, at current prices, would cost $852,000,000,000,000,000, according to this analysis. There would be other raw materials, too. More important is that, unless you have access to some captive planets to provide slave labor, you'd have to pay the workers. If the contract is handled by the Pentagon according to typical "cost plus" procurement policies, there would then be an add-on for corporate profits.

[backscatter712]

13. If you're into building Death Stars, it helps to have the tax base of an entire galaxy.

IIRC, one Imperial Star Destroyer cost more than the entire GDP of an average star system.

[uncle ray]

5. we could always mint a platinum coin to pay for it.

[OswegoAtheist]

6. Rick Santorum's Response:

(Scary narrator voice): President Obama says that, "The Administration does not support blowing up planets." But Rick Santorum disagrees. Rick Santorum believes that no options should be off the table when it comes to interstellar defense.

President Obama is content to allow our bacteria fight off Martian invasions, but Rick Santorum doesn't believe in Evolution, so how can there be bacteria for which we've developed an immunity? What's President Obama trying to hide?

When it comes to the War on Martians, Rick Santorum is ready to listen to and support his Grand Moffs, and do whatever is necessary to prevent another attack on Earth by Martians. Because Tom Cruise won't always be there to save us.

Paid for by SantorumForGalacticSenatePAC.

Oswego "That's no moon...." Atheist

[SpartanDem]

8. lol

[wyldwolf]

9. I find the administration's lack of faith disturbing.

[NewJeffCT]

10. The 3rd reason is obviously the most important

the death star has a fundamental flaw in that it can be blown up by a small one person spacecraft.

[SemperEadem]

11. It looks so much like Mimas

one of Saturn's moons:

[Marrah_G]

12. Best responses ever!!