Index: Lib/urllib2.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/urllib2.py	(revision 65739)
+++ Lib/urllib2.py	(working copy)
@@ -560,8 +560,12 @@
             newurl = headers.getheaders('uri')[0]
         else:
             return
-        newurl = urlparse.urljoin(req.get_full_url(), newurl)
 
+        # fix the broken url and then join with req.get_full_url()
+
+        newurl = urlparse.urljoin(req.get_full_url(), 
+                    urlparse.fix_broken(newurl))
+
         # XXX Probably want to forget about the state of the current
         # request, although that might interact poorly with other
         # handlers that also use handler-specific request attributes
Index: Lib/urlparse.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/urlparse.py	(revision 65739)
+++ Lib/urlparse.py	(working copy)
@@ -40,6 +40,14 @@
     _parse_cache.clear()
 
 
+def fix_broken(url):
+    """Attempt to fix broken, non-confirming urls. Handle the way the browsers
+    handle it."""
+    scheme, netloc, path, params, query, fragment = urlparse(url)
+    if not path: path = '/'
+    fixedurl = urlunparse((scheme, netloc, path, params, query, fragment))
+    return fixedurl
+
 class ResultMixin(object):
     """Shared methods for the parsed result objects."""