You Can't Even Get a Taco These Days Without One of Your Extremities Falling Off…

Via David Neiwert, it seems like Lou Dobbs leaned on the extremely specious research of Madeleine Cosman in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons for a segment on how illegal immigrants make your body parts rot. Says the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Dobbs said he stands "100 percent behind" his show's claim that there had been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the United States over a recent three-year period, and he further suggested that an increase in leprosy was due in part to "unscreened illegal immigrants coming into this country."

Dobbs' endorsement of the claim came after CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl challenged the leprosy figure during a profile of Dobbs on "60 Minutes" this past Sunday. Stahl cited a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services document that reported 7,029 cases over the past 30 years — not three.

The dispute highlights the SPLC's concern that Dobbs and some others in the media are regularly using discredited and inaccurate information about immigrants — material that often originates with far-right ideologues and organizations dominated by white supremacists and nativists.

Dobbs and CNN reporter Christine Romans said they had gotten the information from the late Madeleine Cosman, who was described by Romans as "a respected medical lawyer" – but who, in fact, was a woman who repeatedly ranted about Latino men raping boys, girls and nuns.

Ladies and gentlemen, we hereby present: Lou Dobbs' source.

Cosman died in 2006—but not from leprosy!

More on body parts here.