Today I received my "confirmation notice" from the White House. I guess they want to make sure I've really thought about what I wanted to say to W. Here's the message I received:

"This message is to verify the authenticity of a submission
made to White House Web Mail at www.whitehouse.gov. Your
e-mail address was submitted as the address to send a
response. To confirm your interest in receiving a response
from the White House please reply to this message without
changing the subject line. You must reply to this e-mail
within 72 hours from the time stamp of this message. If
you do not reply to this e-mail, White House Web Mail will
disregard the submission received.

This system will certainly invite more meaningful interaction with the White House. I'm very disappointed though that this system was created by federal employees and not "out sourced" to a more competent entity. Afterall, Microsoft's security in its new OS is terrific; now, those folks know how to write great software!