PHOTO Discovery Channel gunman James Lee protesting in 2008

James Lee, founder of savetheplanetprotest.com, is currently involved in a standoff at the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. But, this isn’t James Lee’s first visit to the building – he staged a rather infamous protest there in March of 2008 that got a good deal of media attention both in print and on the internet.

Lee promoted the event by taking out an ad in a DC newspaper and then promoted the protest through his message board at savetheplanetprotest.yuku.com. According to numerous reports Lee paid homeless people $10/hour to be a part of the protest and also recruited children, as evidenced by the photo above taken by photographer David Glanz.

DCist.com ran an article about Lee paying homeless people to help protest the Discovery Channel and it included one of the homeless men tucking his hard-earned cash in his wallet. According to the messageboard Lee cashed in an inheritance to fund the protests, which not only included paying homeless folks but also tossing money in the air up and down the street! (You can see the video HERE.) Lee addressed the hirings by saying, “And what’s wrong with paying the homeless to protest? I don’t see a thing wrong with it. Or was Discovery planning to hire them before I interrupted the process? I am quite proud of these guys for sure.”

As far as the turnout, it was always disappointing for James, who said of the first day of the protest:

Well, as you probably all know, it went pretty terrible. A few people responded to the ads, but not in the amount needed to save the planet. Tomorrow, there are going to be a few supporters, and hopefully more people will show. This is not going to be as easy as I thought it would be. But I do see a small window of opportunity and I’m going to take it.

The guys wanted to call it quits early, but we’ll be back tomorrow with a renewed effort. I was seriously bummed at the turnout.

One of the contributors to the forum actually attended the rally and offered up his sarcastic interpretation of those few people in attendance:

Save The Planet Protest Failed…we are all going to die.

Whelp!!! That’s it. Lee didn’t save the world. Thanks for trying Lee, but now we’re all going to die…riiiiggghhhhhht NOW!

Nope still here. So I went to this protest this afternoon, and I gotta tell ya, it was great. Of course I would have gone incognito if I thought I would stand out, but seeing as thou there were only 5 guys helping Lee out (not at one time) I felt pretty safe. Anyhoooo… So Lee was there dressed as Grand Moff Tarkin with a big red gym bag. That red gym bag held the biggest box of mentos I have ever seen, mint or spearmint I couldn’t tell. Speaking of gym, Lee, you are looking big around the middle might want to think about hitting one. But I digress, the other folks were a varied lot. Here’s the breakdown of the Dumbledore’s…uhhh I mean Lee’s Army.

1.) Mr. Smooth: Cuz he was the best dressed out the whole bunch. He almost came off as making some sense. He said that he doesn’t think Discovery Channel is a bad company, he just wants Discovery to put disclaimers in the shows. When I asked him if all Discovery’s channels should be about saving the planet Daniel Quinn-stylr…He said no, he just wants more shows about the effects of poaching, over population, shrimping, etc… Reasonable enough guy. Except when I asked who started this group, he said he did. Now I know Lee is a master of disguise, but he really went out of his way if that were true, cuz I thought I saw Lee getting yelled at by a woman in a red jacket at the same time… Oh and Lee is not black.

2.) Mr. Freeze: Nothing to say to anybody. Just stood there holding the sign. Even when I said, “Hello” he just nodded.

3.) The Kid: This was just a younger, premature balding, young man. He dished out the Lee spiel in a much younger voice. He was also the guy who did the Kinko’s runs for more of those wacky one sheets he put into the paper. I didn’t see him til later, probably cuz it was a school day.

4.) Mr. Exploited (aka Mr. eX): Well, Lee hired Mr.eX to stand there holding a sign. Did I mention he was homeless and often seen panhandling in Silver Spring? I didn’t? No? Well, it’s true. In Panera, a couple of the locals told me that he is a guy often seen hitting up people for change. Good on ya Lee. Very resourceful. Hiring a homeless man to aid you in your battles. Patch Adams would be sooooooo disappointed, but me, I say Bully for you!!!

5.) Sgt. Slaughter: This fella tried to explain to me a solution for overpopulation. Well, this MENSA memebr informed me of the One-Child law in China. WOW! This guy is brilliant and came up with a perfectly sensible solution. Except replace “perfectly” with”moronic,” and “sensible solution” with “human rights violation.” Oh yeah and Sarge?!? F**K YOU

I am leaving off 6. Yes leaving off Lee. Why? ‘Cuz Fatty Fat Pants left during the lecture I got from the Sarge. I felt awful. I feared I may never see Lee again. An in my mind, I could hear the TV theme to “The Incredible Hulk.”

Photo: Dave Glanz (Flickr DaveGlanzProductions.com)