Bike Idles High, Tan oil, runs with idle screw disconnected

[raylanser]

So I'm at a loss form what's going on with my bike and I've done a lot of googling this week but the information I find seems contradictory, so I came here. Basic info: I have 2002 GZ250.

I made the mistake of cleaning my carb when my bike wouldn't start after winter, when the problem was really degraded gas. The bike started up after new gas was put in, but now it runs at high rpms, even when the throttle screw is completely detached. All i have to do is give it a little throttle when it starts and it immediately switches to a high idle. If the throttle screw is barely engaged it stays at high rpm, but when detached it will slowly go up and down between high and low, almost to the point of shutting off occasionally, but it doesn't quite get there. I changed the oil today because it looked cloudy and tried cleaning the carb again. The oil was a creamy tan color? I think I could smell gas in it but maybe I'm wrong. After a little running it seems like the oil is starting to cloud up again. Also the choke lever seems to have no apparent effect on engine performance. Where the choke cable connects on the carb, the part that holds the pin doesn't exactly seem to rest straight and adjusting the lever doesn't have any parent effect on the pin/needle that I can tell, but I also don't really know what is supposed to happen with it. There also doesn't appear to be any hesitation when opening the throttle.

I can drive it (it seemed to run alright the day I first got it running, but I realized as I was driving that the rams weren't going down at idle.

Anyways, I'm really just looking for some next steps in diagnosis. I don't think it's the float, since I left everything the same it ran fine before winter. I was thinking maybe the choke cable, or the accelerator diaphragm (the one on the side) looks a little worn, or maybe I didn't clean it well enough, or maybe the float somehow got changed from it's original setting?

Any thoughts would be great, thanks guys.