Where can I find a complete tutorial or guide explaining how I can
create and send e-mail in Python?  In particular, I would like to have
a tutorial that has examples and shows someone how to connect to write
the necessary code using the Python IDLE so that they may send e-mail.

Current versions of python come with the "smtplib" module that allow
flexible manipulation and access to the SMTP protocol

1. The docs for the smtp module are here:
http://www.python.org/doc/2.4.2/lib/module-smtplib.html

2.A simple example would be something like:
server=smtplib.SMTP('destination.smtp.server')
server.sendmail("fromaddress","toaddress","message")

a more complete tutorial is found at:
http://www.python.org/doc/2.4.2/lib/SMTP-example.html

3. If you just want to send mail using the underlying sendmail command
and it's associated mechanism without directly connecting to the
destination server, you can invoke the sendmail program on unix:
take a look at:
http://www.yak.net/fqa/84.html