def _get(self, path, **kwargs):
        """ return a dict. """
        # clean kwargs (filter None and empty string)
        clean_kwargs = clean_dict(kwargs)

        data = urllib.parse.urlencode(clean_kwargs)
        if len(data) > 0:
            api = self._api('%s.json?%s' % (path, data))
        else:
            api = self._api('%s.json' % path)
        req = request.Request(api, headers=self._headers, method='GET')

        try:
            resp = request.urlopen(req).read()
        except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
            resp = e.fp.read()

        return json.loads(resp.decode())