Handles errors and gives debug output on failure
Handles errors and gives debug output on failure

Eventually we can rewrite this with Go if need be - but this is an
incremental improvement at least for now for something that's kind of
painful for new folks.

Fixes GH-135

vfulco/empire,zofuthan/empire,remind101/empire,remind101/empire,zhakui/empire,iserko/empire,markpeek/empire,no2key/empire,zhakui/empire,iserko/empire,mhahn/empire,no2key/empire,lihuanghai/empire,mhahn/empire,zofuthan/empire,remind101/empire,lihuanghai/empire,markpeek/empire,mhahn/empire,vfulco/empire,iserko/empire