comparison puzzle? bug?

[Charles Hixson]

I hesitate to call this a bug, as at my level of expertise that seems
.... unlikely. But I can't think of any other explanation:

This is an extract from some longer code:
print "item = ", item
print "item[0] < lvl = %d < %d = " %(item[0], lvl), bool(item[0] < lvl)
print "item[0] == lvl = %d == %d = " %(item[0], lvl), bool(item[0]
== lvl)
print "item[0] > lvl = %d > %d = " %(item[0], lvl), bool(item[0] ==
lvl)
yields:
item = [1, 'A', '/home/.../data/n1a.gif', <Surface(102x78x32 SW)>]
tem[0] < lvl = 1 < 0 = False
item[0] == lvl = 1 == 0 = False
item[0] > lvl = 1 > 0 = False

I abbreviated that file path. Any ideas what's going on?