How about putting this into the logging module instead?  Instead of
"python <logging options> <program> <program options>", making it
"python -m logging <logging options> <program> <program options".

This:

  * involves no changes to the core interpreter
  * only requires Python to be written, not C
  * Lets other VMs benefit from the feature immediately
  * Follows what seems to be the emerging convention for this kind of
(eg pdb, unittest)
  * Still allows logging to be configured for arbitrary programs that
wouldn't otherwise be configurable in this way