For some reason I cant download programs using apt-get that I use to be able to when I had crunchbang. I just switched to debian lenny today and did an install of just the base system and added all the apps I wanted with apt-get it worked for lxpanel wicd nitrogen sudo but when I try to get guake or shutter it says can't find package. I have learned that this has to do with repositories. I know how to edit them, my question is what would be one I have to add to get a hold of these programs... cant I use a crunchbang or ubuntu repository and what exactly are they can they be from any web site or is it specific?

Both guake and shutter are inside debian testing and unstable repos.
If you are using debian stable, you won't see them as available.

You can always add a debian testing repo and install them like so
and then remove the testing repo.

so how do i fix broken dependencies ?

Apt was supposed to do it for you. What do you miss?

I assume that the entry of shutter brought in too much gnome-dependencies.

AFAIK using the -f switch but still to be sure apt-get --help

It's not generally advised to mix packages from Tesing/Unstable into Stable.
As you've found out it's not just the package,it's the dependencies also.
The stable distribution is just that,as stable as an o/s can be.
Once you start bringing in packages and dependencies from outside you are no longer running stable.
If you want more up-to date software with Stable you can use Backports or compile from source.
If you regularly find yourself wanting packages that are not in Stable you may be better off upgrading to the Testing distribution.