The PR 2 on MSN thing is a canonical URL problem from what I understand, not a deliberate attempt by Google to do anything to a competitor.
I don’t think that contacting Google and asking to be removed from the sandbox would be a good idea. You probably don’t have enough money to bribe anyone working there, especially considering how well their stock is doing. Your time would probably be better spent adding good quality content and getting high quality backlinks.
Here are a few PR 10 sites:
w3.org
adobe.com
nytimes.com
real.com
apple.com
whitehouse.gov
macromedia.com