Like my other language pages, there is the python page.
I like python because it is highly modular and easy to learn for a regular Java/C programmer.
Here is a old but good tutorial with lots of examples: http://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/keith/courses/python/
Here is a nice article on urllib2:
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/articles/urllib2.shtml