Over the weekend we brought you word that an online petition asking the U.S. government to build a Death Star had elicited an official response.

The whole thing was tongue-in-cheek, of course. The White House’s Chief of the Science and Space Branch penned a response shooting it down based on cost, design issues (the Death Star can be destroyed “by a one-man starship”) and the administration’s policy on “not blowing up planets.”

Now the administration’s position has evoked a response from the Galactic Empire itself. The bloggers at the official Star Wars Web site, posting as “Galactic Empire Public Relations,” painted the Obama administration’s position as confirming “the overwhelming military superiority of the Galactic Empire” and discounted the administration’s cost projections as not taking into account the Empire’s own massive economy of scale. An Empire spokesman also dismissed any attack attempting to exploit an alleged weakness in the Death Star’s design as “a useless gesture.”

We look forward to the inevitable counterpoint response from the Rebel Alliance.