how can non-admin users shutdown from CLI?

[Jordan Mantha]

It has been brought to my attention [0] that Karmic doesn't have an
obvious way for non-admin users to shutdown a computer from the
command line. While I can see why that wouldn't always be desirable,
it becomes a big problem for remote management tools.

iTalic is such a tool commonly used with thin client (LTSP) setups or
as a way to remotely control standalone machines. For the later case
it uses gdm-signal -h or gnome-session-save --shutdown-dialog to allow
a person to remotely shutdown other machines. In the new GDM world
order gdm-signal doesn't exist and gnome-session-save
--shutdown-dialog just logs the user out rather than shutting down the
machine. In Jaunty gnome-power-manager shipped gnome-power-cmd and one
could run "gnome-power-cmd shutdown". In Karmic gnome-power-cmd no
longer exists.

So the question is, is there or will there be a way to shutdown a
computer as a non-admin user in Karmic? And if not, is there a
particular reason not to?

-Jordan

[0] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/italc/+bug/367960