[BUG?] Fresh clone of jquery.git shows modifications?

I am on Linux, and core.autocrlf is not set. .gitattributes in the
JQuery repository contains:
* crlf=input

Bisect reveals: fd6cce9e89ab5ac1125a3b5f5611048ad22379e7 v1.7.0-3-gfd6cce9 Add per-repository eol normalization

is the first git commit which shows this problem.

I am confused as to why I am seeing what I am seeing, though. I was under the impression that "crlf=input" meant: "convert crlf to lf on input", which I would take to mean that it would never have any effect whatsoever on "git status"'s output.

If I clone using a version of git before v1.7.0-3-gfd6cce9, then "git status" from a newer git, then everything also appears to work normally (though I haven't dug much into this aspect)

Is there a git option for "just give me what's in the repository, don't ever perform any conversions, one way or the other, just act sane" ?

I thought I had finally understood all this autocrlf nonsense, but once
again I see this as being only an "act stupid mode". I have no idea
what's going on here, and I just want to be able to rely on the
following:
 - git clone someproj.git && cd someproj && git status;
   should NEVER report changes
 - git reset --hard HEAD && git status;
   should NEVER report changes

and, why I ran into this situation this time around:
 - git clone someproj.git && cd someproj && git checkout sometag;
   should ALWAYS work

Can anyone explain why these aren't valid assertions? If they're not, then what is the proper way to tell git "give me a real pristine copy"?

Below is a log of the problem in-action.

[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$ git --version
git version 1.7.2.1.224.g2f41ea
[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$ uname -a
Linux shruggar 2.6.32-24-generic #39-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 28 05:14:15 UTC
2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[shruggar@shruggar extra]$ git clone git://github.com/jquery/jquery.git 
Cloning into jquery...
remote: Counting objects: 12750, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (3921/3921), done.
remote: Total 12750 (delta 8690), reused 12276 (delta 8312)
Receiving objects: 100% (12750/12750), 8.95 MiB | 775 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (8690/8690), done.
[shruggar@shruggar extra]$ cd jquery/
[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$ git st
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working
directory)
#
#	modified:   build/google-compiler-20091218.jar
#	modified:   build/js.jar
#	modified:   speed/jquery-basis.js
#	modified:   test/data/text.php
#	modified:   test/delegatetest.html
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$ git reset --hard HEAD
HEAD is now at 6f031c1 Replace usage of the removed global reset()
method with QUnit.reset().
[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$ git st
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working
directory)
#
#	modified:   build/google-compiler-20091218.jar
#	modified:   build/js.jar
#	modified:   speed/jquery-basis.js
#	modified:   test/data/text.php
#	modified:   test/delegatetest.html
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$ GIT_EDITOR=cat git config --edit
[core]
	repositoryformatversion = 0
	filemode = true
	bare = false
	logallrefupdates = true
[remote "origin"]
	fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
	url = git://github.com/jquery/jquery.git
[branch "master"]
	remote = origin
	merge = refs/heads/master
[shruggar@shruggar jquery]$