asterisk users - Oct 2005 - Getting output from agi scripts (python)

I don't get output in the cli from agi scripts when connecting to a 
running instance of asterisk.
And that is all well and known :
"This is a known problem. Asterisk will only send STDERR from AGI 
scripts to the actual console Asterisk is running on"
I can't, don't want, to do the
/usr/bin/screen -L -d -m -S asterisk /usr/sbin/asterisk -vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvgc
trick

So I putted in my python scripts some logging to file, it doesn't work.

logger = logging.getLogger("")
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
hdlr = logging.FileHandler("agi_log.txt")
logger.addHandler(hdlr)
logger.debug("foobar")
hdlr.flush()
hdlr.close()

writes foobar in a file when called from shell, just creates the file if 
integrated in a agi.
(I can't understand how "It's a minor issue for most people."
btw)

suggestions ? tricks ?