import cookielib
import getpass
import urllib2

password = getpass.getpass()
user = getpass.getuser()
realm = None

# This is the central authentication processing server
# This is usually SSL protected and the password
# should only be sent here
authhost = 'https://centralserver.example.com'

# This is the request URL
# It is usually unprotected by SSL and the password
# should never be sent here
url = 'http://originserver.example.com/path'

# handle the authentication and cookies
cookiehand = urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor()
password_mgr = urllib2.HTTPPasswordMgrWithDefaultRealm()
password_mgr.add_password(user=user,
                          passwd=password,
                          uri=authhost,
                          realm=realm)
auth_handler = urllib2.HTTPBasicAuthHandler(password_mgr)
opener = urllib2.build_opener(auth_handler, cookiehand)
urllib2.install_opener(opener)

# make the request
req = urllib2.Request(url=url)
try:
    f = urllib2.urlopen(req)
    txt = f.read()
    f.close()
except urllib2.HTTPError, e:
    print e
    print e.geturl()
    print e.headers
    txt = ''

print txt