The Feds are not only closing the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, 1.2 million acres are being systematical depopulated. I am at ground zero, the Lake Powell resort at  the Wahweap Marina, five miles from the massive Glen Canyon dam. Yesterday the Feds told the resort operator Aramark to clear all guests from this resort by Thursday at 11:00 a.m. I have talked to some resort staffers and some National Park Service folks about what the plans are for the next few weeks of closure. All off the comments are strictly off record, since everyone is pretty jumpy about all this controlled chaos.

There are heavily armed guards -- side arms plus visible rifles in the white NPS Suburbans -- manning the gate to the GCNRA. Usually there are smiling grandmotherly women who collect the $15 entrance fee.

According to the locals, terrorists have noted that Glen Canyon dam is a high value target.  Obviously, its electrical transmission facilities are quite vulnerable. So a higher degree of security around the dam is to be expected.

What is not expected is that the NPS has begun a systematic program to remove every  single person from the GCNRA; campers, hikers, tourists, backpackers, resort staff, resort maintenance staff, every living soul that can be contacted, up to 60 miles from the dam. Odd, and unsettling to say the least.

In Page, a small town dependent almost entirely on tourist dollars, the outlook for the next few weeks seems pretty grim. Since the Colorado River  runs through Federal land from Glen Canyon to Southern California, all private and commercial  river traffic  has been banned. The economic fallout from the Colorado River closure will ripple through six western states like a flash flood.

The Democrats surely are relishing the opportunity to punish ordinary Americans for daring to oppose Obama care through their elected House members. We shall see if  the American people, digitally drugged by the MSM  and its oh-so-effective  progressive propaganda, understand the punitive operation underway.

Update:

Coming back to our hotel from dinner, my wife and I were stopped at a GCRNA entrance that has been transformed into a armed checkpoint under the hot glare of flashing red and blue law enforcement lights. As usual, we presented our week-long NPS entrance pass to the armed guard at the checkpoint. The armed officer did not know what the NPS  pass was for, so  this was NOT an NPS employee. He then asked if we were camping in the GCRNA. We said no, and said were staying at the Lake Powell Resort hotel, a few minutes up the road. He than asked for our "documentation" before we could proceed to our destination.This was the second time today we had been asked for our "documentation". The first time we just happened to have the email confirmation in the car; this evening we brought it with us just in case we were asked again.

Let's be crystal clear, we were required by an armed Federal agent to produce "documentation"  to get to our hotel and our belongings though neither the hotel nor the NPS had ever advised us as such. 

We have always had freedom to travel throughout the county without a passport or "papers, please." This freedom seems to have been infringed carelessly and thoughtlessly. Has this fundamental freedom been tossed away simply due to due to a budget shutdown of  the Federal Government?  That's how dictators and their totalitarian henchmen function, demanding documents of innocent civilians without legitimate cause, while armed.

The armed Federal agent was. no doubt, "just following orders", and someone in the Executive chain-of command gave those orders. We also know that final responsibility for such orders lies with the Oval Office.