Are we alone? We'll know by the end of the week.

Are we alone? We'll know by the end of the week.

Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick said Monday she's excited about presiding over a week's worth of testimony about the existence of extraterrestrials. [Kilpatrick] signed up with five other former members of Congress to listen to testimony aimed at proving alien contact with Earth and a government effort to cover it up.

"I've been interested for a while," Kilpatrick said before the kickoff of the hearings, known as the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure sponsored by the Paradigm Research Group, a private ET lobbying organization. The hearing lasts through Friday at the National Press Club and will be the basis for a documentary on UFOs.

Meanwhile, at the National Press Club The other members of the bipartisan panel are ex-Sen. Mike Gravel (AK) and ex-Reps. Lynn Woolsey (CA), Darlene Hooley (OR), Roscoe Bartlett (MD) and Merrill Cook (UT). For their efforts, they will apparently receive $20,000, plus get to listen to a lot of really sweet testimony assembled by true believers as to whether or not the government is engaged in a coverup of extraterrestrials.On the History Channel? Please say it'll be on the History Channel.

You've got to hand it to this group for signing on six ex-lawmakers to hold their mock hearing, even if it is apparently costing them a pretty penny to do it. If the panel decides that yes, there is convincing evidence of extraterrestrial visits to Earth? Jackpot. And if they don't? Then it will be obvious evidence that Kilpatrick, Mike Gravel and others have been in on the conspiracy all along.

