Carb problem? Choke has no effect

Hey Guys. I was just wondering if anyone has ran into this problem, because it has me stumped:
I went to start my 1991 Katana 750 up today and it tried a little but just wouldn't fire. after helping it along a little with some ether i got it started but it wouldn't idle correctly either when cold w/ choke, or when hot with the choke open. in fact, when the bike was hot if you close the choke it didn't change the mixture at all (it didn't seem to anyways). the choke cable is physically moving the enrichening circuit - I can see that much. Once I got the bike moving down the road it ran evenly, but without much power. I took the idle up a bit and now it will sit and idle, but i'm sure that its just masking the real problem. the bike has sat for about two weeks without being run, but thats nothing new. Any suggestions? Thanks.