Editor’s Note: The message below is from Jim Messina, campaign manager for Obama for America.

The U.S. Senate is supposed to vote on the American Jobs Act as early as tonight.

It’s a bill that will put people to work immediately, and it contains proposals that members of both parties have said in the past that they’d support.

But Senate Republicans want to block it. Not because they have a plan that creates jobs right now — not one Republican, in Congress or in the presidential race, does. They only have a political plan.

Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory. They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.

There’s still time for principled Republican senators to declare their independence from this kamikaze political strategy.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, needs to hear what Americans like you think.

You can reach his office at (202) 224-2541. Tell him not to let politics get in the way of creating jobs.

Will you take three minutes and call now? Then click here to let us know how it went.

If Sen. McConnell’s office says he won’t support the American Jobs Act, ask which parts he doesn’t support:

– Making sure that those who served our country can get good jobs at home by providing incentives for businesses to hire unemployed veterans?
– Preventing layoffs of teachers, cops, and firefighters, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more?
– Rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, railways, and airports with a bipartisan, public-private infrastructure bank?
– Modernizing at least 35,000 public schools in rural and urban areas?
– Providing job training for the unemployed, especially young people who have been hit especially hard?

The President has been forceful and clear: Action on jobs is desperately needed, and Congress should pass this bill right away.

And he has specifically asked those of us who agree to make sure Republican lawmakers know it.

This bill — and the simple idea that every American who works hard and plays by the rules has a fundamental right to economic security — is a big part of what we stand for as a campaign and as a movement.

There’s no good reason for Congress to delay any more — and if they do, you deserve to know why.

Call Sen. McConnell’s office. Tell him you’re watching, and you expect Republicans in the Senate to do the right thing and move forward on this bill today.

Then let us know how it went:

http://my.barackobama.com/Call-For-Jobs

Thanks,

Messina

Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Good primer on the Occupy Wall Street movement from Ezra Klein’s Wonkbook:

The Occupy Wall Street protests are explicitly inspired by, and modeled on, the Tahrir Square protests in Egypt. And though that’s a tough act to follow, it’s clear the Occupy Wall Street protests are catching a fire all their own. The question now is what they do with it. The jockeying has already begun to suggest an agenda to the protesters — see these proposals by Mike Konczal and Nick Kristof — and, in the embrace of the activist left, to join the protesters to an agenda that already exists, much as happened with the Tea Party and the conservative movement.

We’ll see, over the next few weeks, which, if any of these paths, tempt the protesters. Up until now, the organizers have seemed to view the decentralized, inchoate nature of the protests as a strength for the nascent movement, not a weakness. The unifying idea has been drawing attention to “the 99,” not offering a concrete policy agenda. The New York Times quoted a a pep talk a woman gave to a new protester. “It’s about taking down systems, it doesn’t matter what you’re protesting,” she said. “Just protest.”

Read the full thing here.

The national unemployment rate may have held steady at 9.1%, but that doesn’t mean that all the states are feeling the pain equally. Unemployment actually ranges from 3.3% in North Dakota to 12.9% in Nevada. Check out this chart from CNN to see the numbers for your state.