I too have been getting this issue for a long time now, and I really think it ought to be fixed in Lenny (I'm using Lenny on several computers).
When I ssh to other machines and open emacs in terminal mode there, the issue is present. See here: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=50272 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
