(Code moved to: http://github.com/atl/twitstream )

spritz.py

import asynchat, asyncore, socket, base64, urllib, sys
from urlparse import urlparse
try:
    import json
except ImportError:
    import simplejson as json

USER = "test"
PASS = "test"
URL  = 'http://stream.twitter.com/spritzer.json'

class TwitterStreamGET(asynchat.async_chat):
    def __init__(self, user, pword, url):
        asynchat.async_chat.__init__(self)
        self.authkey = base64.b64encode("%s:%s" % (user, pword))
        self.url = url
        self.host = urlparse(url)[1]
        try:
            proxy = urlparse(urllib.getproxies()['http'])[1].split(':')
            proxy[1] = int(proxy[1])
            self.proxy = tuple(proxy)
        except:
            self.proxy = None
        self.set_terminator("\r\n")
        self.inbuf = ""
        self.create_socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        if self.proxy:
            self.connect( self.proxy )
        else:
            self.connect( (self.host, 80) )
    
    def collect_incoming_data(self, data):
        self.inbuf += data
    
    def found_terminator(self):
        if self.inbuf.startswith("HTTP/1.0") and not self.inbuf.startswith("HTTP/1.0 2"):
            print >> sys.stderr, self.inbuf
        else:
            try:
                a = json.loads(self.inbuf)
                print a['text'], '\n'
            except:
                pass
        self.inbuf = ""
    
    def handle_connect(self):
        request  = 'GET %s HTTP/1.1\r\n' % self.url
        request += 'Host: %s\r\n' % self.host
        request += 'Authorization: Basic %s\r\n' % self.authkey
        request += 'Accept: application/json\r\n\r\n'
        self.push(request)
    
    def handle_close(self):
        self.close()
    

if __name__ == '__main__':
    c = TwitterStreamGET(USER, PASS, URL)
    asyncore.loop()