from django.db.models import signals
from django.dispatch import dispatcher
from django.db import models
def kill_gremlins(text): 
    return unicode(text).encode('iso-8859-1').decode('cp1252')
def charstrip(sender, instance):
	for i_attr in instance._meta.fields:
		if type(i_attr) == models.TextField or type(i_attr) == models.CharField:
			if getattr(instance, i_attr.name):
				setattr(instance, i_attr.name, kill_gremlins(getattr(instance, i_attr.name)))

dispatcher.connect(charstrip, signal=signals.pre_save)