Creating a system that people have to actively circumvent? (the admin responded "need more conference rooms" regarding the location of the meetings across the street, which is reasonable provided that they're implementing the lobbyist transparency measures there).
Anyways, yes, creating a system that people have to actively circumvent is progress. Any meeting in the white house has toe be disclosed, and staffers have to use tricks in order to not disclose a meeting. As compared to before, where no meeting was disclosed, ever, and there was nothing wrong with that (and no gotcha articles, either!).
Oh, and #3 is basically a nonpoint what with the overly vague "40 officials" and total lack of comparisons or context. I clicked through and one of the first names was Tom Vilsack, who spent 30 years as a politician and then a couple as a lobbyist in between gigs. Another was a lobbyist from the ACLU, which really does not match up with most people's definitions of "lobbyist" as far as being paid a lot of money and having an expense account.
As to #3, how can you claim that "the guy's links actually say the opposite of what he's claiming" and agree with him about his third link?
Absolutely agree with you about #1. FOIAs have definitely gotten better.