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Gave this a go myself...
$ ./python
Python 3.4.0a0 (default:57a33af85407, Oct 27 2012, 21:26:30) 
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import socket
>>> socket.getfqdn()
'host.domain.com'
>>> 
$ hostname -f
host.domain.com
$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
Linux host 3.5.2-x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Aug 15 14:31:07 EDT 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux
According to strace, both rely on DNS:
recvfrom(3, "Wj201円200円0円1円0円1円0円5円0円0円00219円003134円003230円003173円7円in-a"..., 1024, 0, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(53), sin_addr=inet_addr("1.2.3.4")}, [16]) = 176
Same behavior on both 2.6 & hg tip. I think this is a non-issue.