Finally this past weekend, decided as a last ditch to try a fresh install of the 32 bit version. This time, during the partition section of the installation, I specifically marked my swap partition as swap (didn't do it in the previous install as I assumed that the installer would pick up the swap automatically). After the initial slug of updates and dist-upgrades, the power management worked properly.
Have since re-installed the 64 bit version and am now heading off to install / configure servers and apps.
Identify the swap partition at installation.
-DataMan


