In Python, you can use urllib2 (http://docs.python.org/2/library/urllib2.html) to do all of that work for you.
Simply enough:
import urllib2
f = urllib2.urlopen(url)
print f.read()
Will print the received HTTP response.
To pass GET/POST parameters the urllib.urlencode() function can be used. For more information, you can refer to the Official Urllib2 Tutorial