Botched python upgrade mangled my system--- HELP!

[Charles Blair <c-blair@illinois.edu>]

   I am running debian 6.0.6 on a Toshiba laptop that is
approximately two years old.  The command python --version
reported 2.6.x.  I wanted to upgrade to 3.3.2, so I
did the following things, some of which were apparently
mistakes.

(1) I downloaded the .tgz for 3.3.2. from python.org,
typed ./configure, make, and make install.  This did
not seem to produce any serious warnings.

(2) python --version said I was still using 2.6.x, so
[probably a Big Mistake] I typed

apt-get remove python

I think I made the further mistake of saying "go ahead"
when there was a warning.

(3) Then I repeated step (1), expecting this would
simply replace the older python with the newer one.
At this point, python --version was still saying 2.6.x,
but python3 --version said 3.3.2.

   However, after shutting down my machine, it became
clear that Something Bad had happened.

   (Bad #1) after entering username and password, I
get tty instead of graphics.

   (Bad #2) the wireless connection has stopped working.

   There are probably other Bad Things as well, but I
decided at this point to ask the experts for help.