Obama signs order to turn water into wine, may get to have a PDA after all

Okay, okay. The executive orders President Barack Obama signed earlier today banned coercive interrogation methods, got rid of CIA "secret prisons" (though if they were a secret, how did Obama know about them?) and ordered the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba to be closed within a year. But the way his Apostles hovered around him, you'd have thought President Obama (doesn't that sound great, President Obama?) was promising to turn water into wine. And closing Guantánamo Bay may prove to be just as difficult.

Photo by Doug Mills of The New York Times

If you missed the live coverage, you can watch and listen to President Obama signing the three executive orders here:

Btw, that constant clicking or whirring noise in the background is the sound of hundreds of photos being snapped, including the one above.

In other Obama -- excuse me, President Obama news, while President Obama may not get to keep his beloved BlackBerry, it looks as though he might get the next best thing, a new spy-proof smartphone, at least for personal messages, according to a report in the London Guardian's online edition.

"If the president is emailing his wife about what time he'll be home for dinner, or checking on when the girls' play is… those are not constitutional and statutory business of the president," said Sharon Fawcett, director of presidential libraries at the National Archives, last week. So they would be permissible. (No word yet on whether checking box scores would fall under the Presidential Records Act.)

IMPORTANT 6:33 PM BLACKBERRY UPDATE/CORRECTION: As noted by blog commenter "Crackberryite," and in this Wall Street Journal article, which JUST came out, "The new president has worked out a deal with unspecified security personnel to keep his BlackBerry for limited professional and personal use, chief spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday."

I think I shall call this "The Miracle of the BlackBerry." President Obama and RIM be praised!