ok, so I downloaded a sarge CD set. The only difference is that disk one was downloaded 8 days before sarge went stable. I don't think that would affect anything. I tried installing the kernel-source-2.6.8 package, and I got some error because the CD was scratched, and it was unable to read the CD. Now it won't let me uninstall this half of a package. I removed the file kernel-source-2.6.8.tar.bz2.<can't remember what was here, it wasn't .deb>. Aptitude is not showing this package as installed, and any time I try to install something, it say something about kernel-source-2.6.8 needing to be reinstalled, but that it can't find an archive of it. I have run apt-get clean a couple of times, trying to keep my system clean. Any suggestions? I may need a little while to get any more information, because I don't have internet under linux. Thanks in advance.

Do apt-get remove <package_name> and then apt-get --purge remove <package_name>.
If that fails try;
If an installation breaks in the middle of the process and you find that it's no longer possible to install or remove packages, try running these two commands:

# apt-get -f install
# dpkg --configure -a

And then try again. It may be necessary to run the second of the above commands more than once. This is an important lesson for those adventurers who use `unstable'.
It is useful to have APT Documentation in your bookmarks or even a printed copy for reference