import time


def makeEpochTime(date_time):
    """
    provides the seconds since epoch give a python datetime object.
    
    @param date_time: Python datetime object

    @return:
        seconds_since_epoch:: int 
    """
    date_time = date_time.isoformat().split('.')[0].replace('T', ' ')
    #'2009-07-04 18:30:47'
    pattern = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'
    seconds_since_epoch = int(time.mktime(time.strptime(date_time, pattern)))
    return seconds_since_epoch