Haven’t been able to do much but respond to email and feedback today, but how did it happen that Rollyo Launched and DeLay crashed on the same day?

I have a sudden urge to go to Vegas.

Wait, I guess it’s not really sudden.

I am proud to present my new site Rollyo: Roll Your Own Search Engine.

Rollyo allows you to create personal search engines using only the sources you trust. Just add the sites into a form and boom, bingo, whamo, you’ve created a custom search engine (we call them Searchrolls).

Gary Price has written up an excellent overview of Rollyo at Search Engine Watch.

You can create as many as you want. And you can explore and save searchrolls created by others including those rolled by our High Rollers; a list that includes Rosario Dawson, Debra Messing, Frontline, Brian Greene, Arianna Huffington, Diane von Fursternberg, MacAddict Magazine and a long list of your favorite bloggers including Kottke, Battelle, Dooce, Jarvis, Evhead, Rubel, Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder, Haughey, The Gothamist and more.

I’d like to thank all of our private beta testers. The feedback is helping us to improve the product every day (we’re already at work on some of Gary’s suggestions. Also, special shout outs to Angus, Dan and Alex (all featured in the Rollyo about us section) for a job well done.

Enough talk, it’s time to Get Rolling…

What’s more shocking than FEMA’s failures in the days after Katrina?

That we are talking about and debating those failings …

We never talk about governance. We have 24 hour networks that dedicate a huge portion of their broadcasts to political issues, yes. But we only cover politics.

Why did W win the last election? Because he ran better. Don’t kid yourself. We analyzed debate performances and word play and the latest political ads. That’s what we do. His policy wonks are not treated like super heroes. His political strategist is.

Politics is what we debate. They are what we worship. We fixate on the sport of politics. We ignore governance.

And that’s why it shouldn’t surprise us when our politicians can’t govern or lead. That’s not what they’re trained to do. And except in wildly unusual and traumatic moments, that’s not the yardstick by which they are measured.

So next time you see a headline about the way in which the hurricanes are impacting W’s favorability numbers, skip it. That’s the line of thinking, that as much as any cronyism or delays related to made-for-television, denim shirted concern, that cost lives when the waters rose.

Michael Brown: The Buck Stops There.

The buck, in this case, stops with local and state leaders.

This is actually a step up from when he blamed the victims.

But here’s the thing. New Orleans’ governmental systems are supposed to suck. That’s part of the city’s charm. Fema is not supposed to.

And either way, you don’t get to point fingers at the receivers when you throw interceptions. Those are just the rules of the game, Michael.

Looks like Judge Roberts soon-to-be SC career will get off with a bang.

The Court has agreed to hear Anna Nicole Smith’s case.

And they worried this guy wasn’t going to be fun…

Chris Hitchens blasts the anti-war protestors who battled hurricane winds (rather unsuccessfully) for some coverage this weekend. Actually, for Chris, it was more a gentle nudge than a blast.

The article brings up (as much of the other coverage does) a conundrum for thinking people who were against the invasion of Iraq.

After all, is pulling out now really a reasonable option? Would anyone argue that we should pull out of New Orleans because we didn’t plan well enough for its aftermath?

Is there any doubt that a unilateral withdrawal at this point would be a disaster for the U.S. and a total betrayal of the Iraqis?

It’s too late to protest against the invasion of Iraq, isn’t it?