A recipient of the email has published the entire email, with all of the images in it, on his blog. Follow the link to see all of the images for yourself.

Recently, while working on the insurance rider for a charitable event, officers of that organization received the following email from a Vice President of their insurance company, from his office in Bloomington, Indiana, on — as you will see — the company account. The company? The Hyland Group, which is a diversified insurance company that also includes health insurance. According to the Huffington Post, the officers of that company gave almost exclusively to Republicans in the last presidential campaign, with the exception of one broker who gave $2,300 to Hillary Clinton. ... [Author of blog explains long Indiana roots] In that context, I present the letter IN FULL, with recipients’ information removed to protect their privacy, and the privacy and integrity of the service organization (in whose youth auxiliary I was a member in high school). Health Ins. VP sends Obama Hate-mail on Company Account

The following quotes from the Sunday, September 27th, 2009 edition of the Bloomington, IN Herald-Times, the local newspaper. Please note: You have to have subscription to access the links.

City cutting ties with Hylant Group Executive who sent anti-Obama e-mails has resigned Bloomington will suspend its work with Hylant Group of Bloomington after a vice president sent an insensitive and racially charged e-mail on his company account, Mayor Mark Kruzan said Saturday. Also, a Hylant Group executive said Saturday that he had accepted the resignation of Denton "Denny" Flahualt, the Hylant vice president who sent the racially charged e-mail. Hylant does not have a contract with the city, but acts as a middleman between the city and insurance carriers. Hylant reviews and analyzes insurances plans from carriers and then provides the city with input as to which plan the city should choose. The insurance carriers, and not the city, pay Hylant. Kruzan said it was a combination of the inappropriateness of the e-mail and the company’s response to it that led to his decision. "It’s not even a close call that there has to be a response from the city of Bloomington as a Hylant customer," Kruzan said. "That response is not to do business with the company in 2010." "The company’s lack of direct ownership of the issue requires that the city act in a way that makes it clear that we expect more from companies with whom we’re doing business," Kruzan said. The e-mail, sent by Flahault, the former vice president of Hylant Group of Bloomington, includes various images of President Barack Obama: as a communist, as Adolf Hitler and more. One image depicts Obama, surrounded by communist and Muslim symbols, urinating on a map of the United States. Richard Hylant, regional vice president of Hylant Group of Toledo, said the images in the e-mail portray bigotry and are political hate messages, which serve no purpose in this world. "I hope people don’t have the impression that we haven’t reacted strongly, because the organization condemns this kind of behavior," Hylant said. Hylant said he’s not worried about losing other business and will explain the situation to any customer who asks. Reached Saturday afternoon, Flahault declined to comment for this article. ...

The news about the email had been reported in an earlier article in the Herald-Times, September 25, 2009. Again, the entire article requires subscription.

Exec’s e-mail on Obama termed ‘very disturbing’ VP of local chamber’s Large Business of Year criticized for sending out images of president A day after Hylant Group of Bloomington was honored as the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce’s Large Business of the Year, a vice president for the company is being assailed for sending out an inappropriate and racially-tinged e-mail on his company account, using his company signature. The e-mail includes various images of President Barack Obama: as a communist, as Adolf Hitler, as the nerdy African-American child character Steve Urkel from the television show "Family Matters," and as Mad magazine icon Alfred E. Neuman. One image depicts Obama, surrounded by communist and Muslim symbols, urinating on a map of the United States. ... On Thursday, Denton "Denny" Flahault, vice president of Hylant Group of Bloomington, acknowledged sending the e-mail. "Unfortunately, yes," he said. "It was not intended for the individual who received it and it was completely a mistake." Jon Strole, regional chief operating officer for the Hylant Group, also said it was a mistake by an employee. "We do have a policy for employees in terms of you are not supposed to use your office e-mail to send personal things of that nature. We will deal with that internally," he said. "Denny has apologized to the Kiwanis organization and that has been accepted by their folks," the Toledo-based corporate officer said. Williams, the blogging journalist, linked the e-mailed images to the "pernicous racism" underlying attacks on the president, particularly over his call for health care reform. Audrey McCluskey, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at Indiana University, viewed the materials and wrote in an e-mail that they were "very much racially-tinged." She continued: "The easiest response would be to keep the temperature up by branding this outrageous slander as racist and giving the perpetrators the attention they crave. My question is, what is it about the American character that produces such images, and why do so many good people remain quiet in the face of it?"

Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, associate professor in the department of communicaions and culture at IU, termed the images "brutal and very disturbing" and wrote: "The images also serve as awful, scary replacements for argument and reason, which should be elevated in civic discourse. If health care matters and President Obama’s public polices ARE THE main issues under contention, then why is it necessary for one to resort to pushing images of President Obama with a dark mustache (with a swastika nearby) against a red background — all signifying that President Obama IS Hitler? Words and images matter!"

Update:

As I glanced over this diary and responses as I get ready to leave for work this morning, I want to say that I am, as always, impressed when the thoughtful members of this community show up for a discussion. Many of you have gotten the point I wanted to get across by reporting this incident in the context I chose of comparing my personal recent experience with family.

It is not just the public instances like this. It is how we choose to deal with our friends and our family. Remember: Silence is consent. No matter how you handle it, the time is well past to just remain silent in the face of the greatest resurgence of overt racism I have seen since my late teens and early twenties, the teens lived amidst the era of Bull Conner and the dogs and fires hoses in Birmingham, and the early 20's amidst the era of national race riots and the Vietnam war, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

Silence is no longer an option. I point out in a comment I added this morning that the time is well past when Obama and the Democrats should be responding to this madness, not sitting in silence. Even Doonesbury is turning on Obama on this point:

Doonesbury Hits the Nail on the Head

Update Part Deux:

I do in fact believe that there is implicit criticism of Obama in the Doonesbury cartoon, as I note do others in the blog-o-sphere today.

For instance, John Aravosis over at America Blog had the same take, in fact, he titled his blog entry 'Doonesbury has turned on Obama'.

I think there is definitely implicit criticism of Obama for not responding strongly enough to the incredible unhinged attacks by the right wing, which I think are clearly what is portrayed in the panels of the cartoon leading up to the final frame.