Query the PyPI RSS feed and return a list
    of XML items.

def _get(pypi_server):
    """
    Query the PyPI RSS feed and return a list
    of XML items.
    """
    response = requests.get(pypi_server)
    if response.status_code >= 300:
        raise HTTPError(status_code=response.status_code,
                        reason=response.reason)
    if hasattr(response.content, 'decode'):
        tree = xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring(response.content.decode())
    else:
        tree = xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring(response.content)
    channel = tree.find('channel')
    return channel.findall('item')