It seems to me to be more along the lines of "social liberal" party that is actually a fairly pro-market party, centrist economically, leftist in terms of social politics, with a strong emphasis on environmental issues.

That's how I see it, except that I'd say center left rather than center on economic issues with the exception of anything related to the environment. There are also significant internal divisions within the Greens but the right wing of the party is currently on top. Furthermore Joschka Fischer, the de facto Green leader is about as Antlanticist as you get in the continental West European left these days.  Incidentally they're my favorite German party and as you know I'm not a big fan of the far left.

in a mere quarter century. Started out with people from all over the place. Oodles of 70s-style ultraleftists, bundled up with a hearty chunk of progressive Xians, romantic conservatives, and people from all segments of the political center who under the combined impact of environmental devastation and the nuclear arms race for the first time in their lives came to question what we used to call "the system" in those days. Now it's a very different story. Not very many of those who founded the party have stuck around. Two people who have been there from the get-go are Joschka Fischer and Christian Stroebele, the most prominent representatives of the realo and fundie wings of the party. As you might imagine, realos want to change "the system" from within, whereas fundies refuse to be "corrupted" by it. Until about ten years ago, fundies held a strong majority among the party activists. And even these days, they are quite capable of mustering the votes it takes to, say, derail a party convention. But the realos have had one incredible success story, which ultimately swept Joschka Fischer into the vice chancellorship. The party of Joschka Fischer stands for sustainability, fiscal responsibility, and civil rights. Not a bad mixture IMO.

Damn George Bush! Damn everyone that won't damn George Bush! Damn every one that won't put lights in his window and sit up all night damning George Bush!

the Green Party in the US is a motley collection of unreconstructed left wing radicals (Marxists and anarchists), young anti-globalization types, and Ross Perot-type protest voters. It strikes me that the German version is not like this, however.

Heh, the German Greens started out just like that :-) outgoing foreign minister Joschka Fischer was a leading member of the second wave of the extra-parliamentary leftist opposition in Frankfurt am Main, one of those squatters who settled in abadoned old houses estate developers wanted to run down and build something else in their place, and clashed with police. When Joschka became a minister for the first time, in the middle eighties when the first SPD-Greens coalition formed in Hessen state, he was sworn in clad in jeans and wearing a jogging shoe.

As for the current state of the party, I think you are about right, except this is the official line, the one carried on by the now dominant 'Realo' wing, but there still exists a significant "Fundi" wing - those who aren't really pro-market, and have a much stronger focus on the environmental issues. (Also, what you call 'centrist' would count rather strongly to the right in Germany just three decades ago, or even 15 years ago when I lived near Frankfurt.)

Regarding Fischer and Merkel, Fischer on one hand is not a party leader (the party has a double leadership: currently Claudia Roth and Reinhard Bütikofer, the first a Fundi the second a Realo), on the other hand, he must know himself that the aversions of his voters are too big (after all, FDP and CDU campaigned with abolishing just those reforms the Greens achieved in the last 6 years) - I believe hence his public rejection of the Jamaica version.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

...about the U.S. Green Party from?  You dismiss us as

a motley collection of unreconstructed left wing radicals (Marxists and anarchists), young anti-globalization types, and Ross Perot-type protest voters.

Certainly there is an minority within the Green Party that fits this description. They're organized in Peter Camejo's group that calls itself Greens for Democracy and Independence.  Although a number of folks whose first loyalty belongs to the Greens have joined GDI for a variety of reasons, the core of Camejo's group (like Camejo himself) are lifelong sectarian leftists for whom the Green Party is simply the latest in a series of vehicles to achieve their teleological vision of the future.  Many of these folks are committed members of the ISO.

But the Camejo wing of the Green Party (I'd call it the Nader wing, but Nader has repeatedly refused to join the party at all) have repeatedly lost intraparty debates over the last couple years. They lost last year, when our convention nominated David Cobb, instead of endorsing Nader's quixotic independent presidential campaign. And they lost this year when, at the U.S. Green Party's annual meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a number of GDI proposals to "reform" the Green Party were decisively defeated by the delegates.

The majority of the Green Party are activists who are committed to a distinctly Green vision, built around our party's Ten Key Values: Social Justice, Community-Based Economics, Nonviolence, Decentralisation, Future Focus/Sustainability, Feminism, Personal and Global Responsibility, Respect for Diversity, Grassroots Democracy, Ecological Wisdom.  We understand that building a Green Party in this country is a long process, and that it will happen from the ground up. The key to our longterm success is not losing presidential races, but winning local races and building trust. That's why dozens of local Green elected officials are going to work for their communities every day.

Now the Green Party of the United States is certainly not the "pro-market," centrist-but-environmentally-friendly party of Ben P's dreams.  But it is even more certainly not the red-baiting caricature that he presents.

For those interested in finding out more about what the Green Party of the United States actually is, please check out our website.