SALON

Tuesday, Dec 4, 2012 5:37 PM UTC

World Net Daily wonders: “Will Obama build a Death Star?”

The right-wing conspiracy theory website falls victim to Internet trolls

By

Topics: Barack Obama, World Net Daily, Star Wars, secession, White House,

World Net Daily wonders: (Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A columnist on the conservative website World Net Daily took a trolling petition on the White House website as a sign that President Obama is perhaps considering building a Death Star. Yes, that Death Star.

In a post called “WILL OBAMA BUILD A DEATH STAR NEXT? White House urged to construct ‘Star Wars’ space battle station,” Joe Kovacs wonders if the White House will respond to a petition on its “We The People” website calling for construction on a Death Star to begin by 2016.

“It sounds like a case of ‘May the farce be with you,’” Kovacs writes, “but at this moment, in a galaxy not far away, there is a real-life petition on a White House website pushing for the funding and construction of a Death Star like the one featured in the ‘Star Wars’ film saga.”

The petition asks the Obama Administration to secure resources and funding for the construction: “By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense.”

Kovacs writes:

So far, there’s no official response from the White House, but there could be one should the petition collect 25,000 signatures by mid-December. As of Monday afternoon, more than 800 people signed the online measure.

Interestingly, one of the names on the petition is “Darth V.” from Burlington, N.C., who signed the measure Dec. 1.

Darth Vader is the legendary character from “Star Wars” who was the father of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, and was seduced to the “dark side of the force.”

What Kovacs is missing, it seems, is that the petition is part of a slew of mostly joke postings on the “We The People” website, that include things like, “Establish new legal system of motorcycle riding ‘Judges’ who serve as police, judge, jury, and executioner all in one,” and another Star Wars-themed petition to “Peacefully grant the planet of Alderaan to withdraw from the Galactic Empire and create its own new government.”

A lot of these postings were the Internet’s response to petitions from states asking for permission to secede from the Union in the wake of President Obama’s election. One fake petition addressed this as well, asking to “Deport everyone that signed a petition to withdraw their state from the United States of America.”

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 3 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations