Importing two module variables and having one clobber the other?

[Joseph Turian]

Can I simulate the behavior of "from foo import *" using
imp.load_module()?

Here's the functionality I need:

We allow the user to define parameter values, which are imported and
can be accessed directly as variables within Python. These are defined
in "parameters.py".

More specifically, let's say the user creates "dir/parameters.py" and
"dir/subdir/parameters.py" and then invokes the program from within
dir/subdir. We first import the values from dir/parameters.py and then
import the values from dirs/subdirs/parameters.py, potentially
clobbering any values from the first import.

How can I achieve this functionality?
Here's what I have in mind:
* Find every directory from os.environ["HOME"] through os.getcwd()
* Find all such directories in which parameters.py exists.
* "from parameters import *", starting from the highest-level directory
through the current directory.

Thanks!
   Joseph