By Adam Pagnucco.

Today is Thanksgiving, an occasion for celebrating with friends and family and giving thanks.  And we here at Seventh State have many thanks to give.

We are thankful for the reporters, bloggers, troublemakers, rascals, rogues and scalawags who keep our government honest.  And we are thankful to this nation’s founders who created the First Amendment to protect them.

We are thankful for Facebook, which gives us online tirades by politicians available for screen shots.

We are thankful for the liquor monopoly, which gives us a rare county service to complain about.  (Snow plowing season hasn’t started yet.)

We are thankful for public campaign financing, which has helped give us more candidates than can fit in RFK Stadium.

A recent day at the County Board of Elections’ candidate counter.

We are thankful to all the County Council candidates who will shortly be filling out our 72-question questionnaire.  (We are kidding – or so they hope.)

We are thankful to our guest bloggers.  After all, someone has to come up with good content for this site!

We are thankful to David Trone, who has promised to give Total Wine coupons to everyone who votes for him.  (OK, this hasn’t happened, but we are entitled to our fantasies!)

We are thankful to Comptroller Peter Franchot, who is doing everything in his power to help Maryland craft beer connoisseurs.  (His occasional entertaining spats with Senate President Mike Miller are a bonus.)

We are thankful to Council Member Hans Riemer for having the best pair of pants in county politics.  (Not to mention one of the best-looking families of all time!)

We are thankful to everyone who signed the petition to deport Justin Bieber and we hope there is another one.  Perhaps the current President will take action!

We are thankful for Roger Goodell, who might be the only person in pro football worse than Dan Snyder.

We are thankful for Baltimore City State Senator Nathaniel Oaks, who brought back fond memories of Senator Clay Davis.

We are thankful to our many off-the-record sources without whom it would be impossible to understand what the government is doing.  Keep it coming, folks!

We are thankful to the government employees who educate our kids, protect us from crime and provide us with professional, top-notch services every day.  And we are thankful to the private sector employees and business owners who pay for them.

We are thankful for our families and friends, who knock us down when we deserve it and pick us up when we need it.

And most of all, we are thankful to Seventh State readers, who tolerate our dreck and inexplicably come back for more.

Happy Thanksgiving!