Twitter simple with VB.NET

Thought I would share my homebrew Twitter framework. I'll post a sample app using it in a bit.

Imports System 
Imports System.IO 
Imports System.Net 
Imports System.Web 
Public Module twitter 
    'hard coded for testing 
    Public username As String = "YOUR USER NAME" 
    Public password As String = "YOUR PASSWORD" 


    Public FriendTimeline As String = "http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/{0}.xml"
    Public Publictimeline As String = "http://twitter.com/statuses/public_timeline.xml" 
    Public Archive As String = "http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/{0}.xml" 
    Public Replies As String = "http://twitter.com/statuses/replies.xml" 
    Public Direct As String = "http://twitter.com/direct_messages.xml" 
    Public AuthUser As String = "http://twitter.com/account/verify_credentials.xml" 
    Public Update As String = "http://@twitter.com/statuses/update.xml" 
    Public Followers As String = "http://twitter.com/statuses/followers.xml" 


    Public Function Push(ByVal username As String, _ 
                         ByVal password As String, _ 
                         ByVal action As String, _ 
                         Optional ByVal mode As Integer = 0) As String 
        Dim req As WebRequest 
        If mode = 0 Then 
            req = HttpWebRequest.Create(String.Format(action, username)) 
        Else 
            req = HttpWebRequest.Create(String.Format(action)) 
        End If 

        req.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(username, password) 
        Try 
            'returns raw xml 
            Dim res As WebResponse = req.GetResponse() 
            Dim ret As StreamReader = New StreamReader(res.GetResponseStream()) 
            Dim retData As String = ret.ReadToEnd() 
            ret.Close() 
            Return retData.ToString 
        Catch ex As Exception 
            Return "There was an error please try again..." 
        End Try 
    End Function 

    Public Function PostStatus(ByVal status As String) As String 
        Dim ret As String 
        Dim req As WebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(Update) 
        System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = False 
        req.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(username, password) 

        req.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" 
        req.Method = "POST" 
        Dim encoding As System.Text.ASCIIEncoding = New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding() 
        Dim bt() As Byte = encoding.GetBytes(String.Format("status={0}", status)) 

        Dim s As Stream 
        Try 
            req.ContentLength = bt.Length 
            s = req.GetRequestStream() 
            s.Write(bt, 0, bt.Length) 
        Catch ex As Exception 
            Throw ex 
        End Try 

        Try 
            'returns raw xml 
            Dim res As WebResponse = req.GetResponse() 
            If res Is Nothing Then 
                Return Nothing 
            End If 

            Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(res.GetResponseStream()) 
            ret = sr.ReadToEnd().Trim() 
            sr.Close() 
        Catch ex As Exception 
            Throw ex 
        End Try 

        Return ret 
    End Function 
End Module