git rebase syntax question

[Steve French <smfrench@austin.rr.com>]

I am missing something in the git rebase syntax ... am simply trying to 
remove some "empty" merge messages from my tree like:

commit 7538943ddf992b6ee5ec21d460f1eecc0afdb6f3
Merge: 9f73763... bbab152...
Author: Steve French <sfrench@us.ibm.com>
Date:   Fri Aug 11 17:46:20 2006 +0000

    Merge ../cifs-tmp/

and reorder the commits so my commits that are not in the parent are the 
most recent

The git repository is cloned from 
/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git and has one branch and 
history like
         ...->A->MyCommits->B->MoreOfMyCommits->C->EmptyMergeMessages
and I want to make my master look like
         ...->A->B->C->MyCommits->MoreOfMyCommits
   

where "MyCommits" and "MoreOfMyCommits" are not in 2.6.18-rc4 yet, and  
A, B, and C are the parent's (mainline kernel) commits (e.g. A is up to 
about 2.6.18-rc1, B are those between rc1 and rc3, C would be rc4 and 
later etc.)

I tried doing the obvious
    "git rebase master"
but that appears to be a no op
    stevef@smf-t41p:~/cifs-2.6> git-rebase master
    Current branch master is up to date.
    stevef@smf-t41p:~/cifs-2.6> git-rebase origin
    Current branch master is up to date.



How does one do this?