One of Barack Obama's staunchest local supporters, Salman Aftab, was charged with assault and battery on October 3. The violently homophobic, former insider of failed Sunrise Equities (more below) and former Democrat candidate for city council has been arrested before. (snip) The Bench has learned that Aftab was involved briefly with the Obama for Illinois campaign, when Obama was running for the Illinois State Senate in 2004. At that time, Aftab was friendly with Tariq Siddiqui, a major Obama donations bundler, and was present at Sunrise Equities' offices for the ribbon cutting of the free office space given by Sunrise...