Okay firstly,

My idle bobs a lot. It will bob between 1k - 2.5k until enventually after it warms up it settles down to an idle at 700. Not quite sure what it is or what to start with.

Secondly, my cat is horribly clogged and causes my motor to bog down a lot in higher gear. I'm thinking about cutting it off all together and just putting in a straight pipe. I realize this is going to make it louder... has anyone ever done this, and is it so loud that I'm going to draw attention from every person within a square mile?

 

your IACV is stuck take it out and clean it... its prolly stuck...

 

Yes clean the IACV, as far as the cat is concern, what year is your car? if you're obd2 then no you can't just take it off unless you connect and 02 simulator, if you're obd1 then go ahead and toss it, but if you're a tree hugger then just get hi-flow cat, you save the environment, you stay within the proper emission level, and still flow as much as a test pipe. How exactly did you figure your cat is bad? Does it smell like rotten egg? is your gas mileage bad?