Code:
for choice in current_xml.xpath("//choice"):
log.info(date_string+" "+choice.get("startTime")+" "+
current_time_in_user_timezone.strftime("%Z"))
start_time=datetime.strptime(date_string+" "+choice.get("startTime")+" "+
current_time_in_user_timezone.strftime("%Z"),"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z")
end_time=datetime.strptime(date_string+"