This is not a bug in the session menu. It is a bug in GTK, or more
precisely, a lack of sophistication in the way GTK lays out menus.

It is bad for the horizontal area used to display keyboard combos to
overlap a lot with the horizontal area used for the item text, because
this makes it harder to scan both the items and the combos. You can see
this for example in OpenOffice.org Writer's "Insert" menu (screenshot
attached): it's difficult to see that the "Comment" item has a keyboard
combo, because it's smothered by the longer "Cross-reference..." item
immediately above it.

Native GTK menus go to an extreme length to make sure this never
happens: all menu item labels, and all keyboard combos in that menu,
occupy completely separate columns, with space between the columns.
Unfortunately, this makes some menus very wide. The session menu is just
one example of this. For an even worse example, see Evolution's "Search"
menu: the "Clear" item label is miles away from its Shift+Ctrl+B
keyboard combo, because the combo is trying to keep clear of the much
longer "Create Search Folder From Search..." item further down the menu.
<http://lwn.net/images/ns/mua/evolution/searching.png> And that really
isn't necessary.

Native Windows and Mac OS X menus take a more sophisticated approach. I'm not 
sure exactly what they do, but they seem to allow a *small* amount of overlap 
between text and combos in adjacent items
<http://www.betalogue.com/2004/02/25/non-breaking-space-keyboard-shortcut-in-indesign-cs/>
<http://sierramousetrap.org/smmug/20100405-meeting/demo_discussion/shortcuts/menuShortcuts.png>
and a much greater overlap between text and combos in non-adjacent items.
<http://0.tqn.com/d/graphicssoft/1/0/c/C/1/psc5-016.gif>
<http://etutorials.org/shared/images/tutorials/tutorial_42/54084xfg0107.jpg>
<http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/08/18/KeyboardShortcuts3.png?>
I think GTK should do the same.

** Attachment added: "OpenOffice.org Writer's "Insert" menu"
   
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-session/+bug/635803/+attachment/1630734/+files/Screenshot-2.png

-- 
Too much empty space at the right side of the indicator-applet drop-down menu
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/635803
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