Fixes for SqlAlchemy/python  nonsense

* Created strToBool to convert config string to bool
** Created it twice because circular dependency.
* Moved Counter from metrics because SqlAlchemy wasn't creating the table.
* dropped util/utils because it was confusing (thus introducing the circle)
* fixed unit tests to handle lack of whitelist user table
** Fixed settings elements to check correct source.
* swore. A lot.
fix to patch because sqlalchemy is awesome.
Merge pull request #7 from jrconlin/master

SqlAlchemy fixes