How do I embed an AppleScript in a Python script?

Use subprocess:

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

scpt = '''
    on run {x, y}
        return x + y
    end run'''
args = ['2', '2']

p = Popen(['osascript', '-'] + args, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
stdout, stderr = p.communicate(scpt)
print (p.returncode, stdout, stderr)

Example 3 in this article suggests:

#!/usr/bin/env python
#sleepy-mac.py
#makes my mac very sleepy

import os
cmd = """osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to sleep'"""
def stupidtrick():
     os.system(cmd)
stupidtrick()

These days, however, subsystem.Popen is usually preferred over os.system (the article is from three years ago, when nobody screamed on seeing an os.system call;-).